An impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Joe Biden could be in the cards in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy implied on Tuesday, July 25th, that he and fellow Republican lawmakers were seeking to take action, possibly making it the fifth time in American history that a sitting president faced an impeachment procedure.
“This is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry,” Kevin McCarthy told Fox News, referring to the corruption allegations surrounding Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The House Speaker believes the inquiry would “provide Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed” about the Bidens’ family finances.
The Republicans started looking into Hunter Biden’s affairs after gaining a majority in the House of Representatives at the Midterm elections in November 2022. The Republicans, who lead three key House committees, have launched investigations not just to gather information about the president’s son, but also to reveal how deeply Joe Biden was involved, whether he used his clout as vice president between 2009 and 2017 to further his son’s business dealings, and whether he received bribes from foreign countries while doing so. “We would know none of this if Republicans had not taken the majority, we’ve only followed where the information has taken us,” said McCarthy.
Republicans are particularly looking into payments Hunter Biden received from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. Hunter joined the board of Burisma in 2014 when his father was vice president. An internal FBI document, dated 30 June 2020, seen last month by members of the House Oversight Committee, contains an interview by an FBI informant claiming that Burisma executive Mykola Zlochevsky had paid $5 million to both President Biden and his son, in exchange for shaking off a corruption investigation into the dealings of Burisma, and getting then-prosecutor of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin, fired. While Biden has always denied claims of corruption, in January 2018 at a Council of Foreign Relations event, he did in fact boast that he ordered the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin, or the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in aid:
I said, “You’re not getting the billion.” I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: “I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.” … Well, son of a bitch, he got fired.
Republican-led investigations in the House have also found that Biden’s family received millions of dollars from individuals connected with Romania and China. “We’re pretty confident that the president was very knowledgeable of what his family was doing,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer said this May, referring to bank records the committee obtained. According to the New York Post, Hunter Biden’s former best friend, Devon Archer, is set to testify before Congress, behind closed doors, next Monday, July 31st, about meetings he witnessed that were attended by Joe Biden either in person or via speakerphone. According to Archer, Hunter would call his father and introduce him to foreign business partners or prospective investors.
Above all these corruption allegations, Kevin McCarthy pointed out that Hunter Biden may have received preferential treatment by the White House when he negotiated a plea deal with the Justice Department (DOJ) to avoid serious charges related to criminal activity. The president’s son is set to plead guilty on Wednesday, July 26th, to two misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to pay income taxes.
Prosecutors allege that Hunter did not pay taxes on more than $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018. The charges could carry a sentence of up to 18 months, but Biden is unlikely to face prison time. He is also charged in a separate case with unlawfully owning a firearm while addicted to drugs. As Reuters reports, Hunter has entered into a so-called pretrial diversion agreement for that charge, an alternative to prosecution that allows defendants to avoid a conviction or prison time.
McCarthy cited two whistleblowers from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), who appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last week and claimed Hunter received preferential treatment. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. If you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal,” McCarthy previously said about the plea deal, referring to attempts by Democrats to have former Republican President Donald Trump imprisoned.
American voters seem to agree with the allegations of preferential treatment. Sixty-seven percent of voters say it’s likely Hunter got a “sweetheart” plea deal because of who he is, while 28% say it’s not likely, according to a Rasmussen poll published earlier this July.
Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday gave no timeline for launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden, while White House spokesman Ian Sams said the Republican party’s “eagerness” to go after Biden “regardless of the truth is seemingly bottomless.” “Instead of focusing on the real issues Americans want us to address like continuing to lower inflation or create jobs, this is what the House GOP wants to prioritize,” Sams said on Twitter.
The U.S. Constitution permits Congress to remove presidents before their term is up if enough lawmakers vote to say that they committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” While a Republican-majority House could be expected to impeach Joe Biden, the Senate, which is led by Democrats, would surely not vote to convict the president. Only three presidents have been impeached, Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump twice during his tenure. All of them were acquitted and completed their terms in office.
