The House Rules Committee advanced a resolution on Dec. 12 to formalize the impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.
The panel, in a party-line vote of 9-4, approved the resolution. It is now set to be voted on the House floor on Dec. 13.
In his opening statement, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said that the vote is “one of the gravest and most consequential responsibilities of the House of Representatives” and “is an occasion I do not relish.”
The 14-page measure, put forth by Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), instructs the House Ways and Means, Oversight and Accountability, and Judiciary committees to continue their probe of President Biden, who has come under Republican scrutiny for allegedly profiting from his time as vice president and afterward through family foreign business dealings, including with China, that involved his son Hunter Biden.
Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced the impeachment inquiry on Sept. 12, without a House vote. The White House had argued that the inquiry was illegitimate as a result, prompting top Republicans to concede that while they didn’t think a vote was legally required, it would be better.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Dec. 12 that the inquiry is necessary given the White House has said it will not cooperate with Congress in turning over certain records and allowing witnesses to testify.
“So we have no choice to fulfill our constitutional responsibility,” he said during a weekly House GOP press conference. “We have to take the next step. We’re not making a political decision. It’s not. It’s a legal decision.”
Mr. Johnson noted that the impeachment inquiry will not be “rushed,” but will “follow the facts.”
With Republicans’ razor-thin majority, they can only afford to lose three votes on the resolution, assuming all Democrats vote against it. So far, only Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) has publicly said he’d vote against the measure.
Several Republicans in districts that went for President Biden in 2020 have said that they will support the inquiry.
Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) said, according to ABC News, that he is “ready to see this impeachment inquiry go forward as quickly as possible.” Reps. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), and Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) told Axios they plan on voting for the inquiry.
After all, the impeachment inquiry does not necessarily mean there will be an impeachment of President Biden.
“We have to prove to the American public that this really should be of great concern to them that it appears that then-vice president took all this money perhaps as favors,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisc.) told The Epoch Times’ sister outlet NTD.
“Joe Biden is innocent until proven guilty,” he added.
Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) told NTD that Congress needs to “unwind” what he said was “a lot of evidence.”
“There’s a lot of smoke here and the American people have a right to know about the conduct of the president, maybe while he was vice president,” he said, adding that “we need to let the chips fall where they may once the investigation starts and then concludes.”
Mr. Gimenez remarked that the House is “not quite there yet” regarding an impeachment vote.
Subpoenas
House Republicans have already issued subpoenas to members of the Biden family, including Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden has been subpoenaed to appear at a closed-door interview with House investigators this week, but his lawyer responded to the notice by offering the president’s son testify in a public hearing instead.
Top Republicans are now threatening to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress if he does not show up at the closed-door deposition on Dec. 13.
The House GOP has accused the Biden administration of stonewalling during the probe. In response, the White House claims that it has cooperated in turning over more than 35,000 pages of confidential financial records.
The resolution would authorize the House Judiciary Committee to issue articles of impeachment. It also states that the committees can release a report of their findings and can release transcripts of closed-door testimony.
An accompanying resolution also authorizes the enforcement of subpoenas issued by three panels overseeing the inquiry.
Mr. Johnson, in an opinion piece in USA Today on Dec. 12, said the House GOP “will likely need to go to court to enforce its subpoenas, and opening a formal inquiry – backed by a vote of the full body – puts us in the strongest legal position to gather the evidence and provide transparency to the American people.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), when asked by The Epoch Times in September, didn’t rule out subpoenaing President Biden.
“Anything’s possible, but right now, we’re following the money,” he said at the time.
The probe has turned up bank records revealing at least $20 million in payments from foreign entities that were channeled through 20 shell companies to members of the president’s family as well as their business associates.
The payments—sourced from such countries as Russia, China, Ukraine, and Romania—were also observed to have begun during the president’s time as vice president and, in some cases, coincided with his trips to those countries.
Another key finding was that a confidential FBI source had alleged that President Biden received a $5 million bribe to ensure that a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating a Ukrainian company for which his son was a board director was fired.
President Biden last week called allegations about his involvement in his family members’ business dealings a “bunch of lies.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, denounced the resolution.
“Voting to launch an impeachment inquiry will not change the fact that, following many months of endless investigation by House Republicans this Congress and by Senate Republicans in 2020, the evidence plainly shows no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, much less an impeachable offense,” he said in a Dec. 7 statement.
House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called the committee vote “a very sad day for this committee and for the institution and for this country.”
House Democrat leadership has blasted the impeachment inquiry.
“On Jan. 21 2021, Marjorie Taylor Greene filed articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden, the day after he was sworn into office,” said House Democrat Conference Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) on Dec. 12, referring to the Georgia Republican.
“The vote this week is the culmination of the extreme MAGA Republican year-long agenda,” he continued.
The White House also issued an 18-page memo disputing the charges and stated that Republicans are pursuing a “baseless impeachment stunt” despite providing no proof of misconduct by President Biden in a continuous effort to defame the president.
Mark Tapscott, Samantha Flom, Emel Akan, and Melina Wisecup contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
