U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman believes President Joe Biden has been lying to the American people about his involvement in his son’s international business dealings. On Wednesday, she cast a vote to support opening a formal impeachment inquiry into the president, which passed the House.
“It is clear that Joe Biden had some level of interaction with his son Hunter’s businesses – businesses that were set up for the purpose of receiving payments directly from foreign governments and individuals, including many who were outright hostile to the best interests of the United States,” she said in a Wednesday press release.
The resolution passed on a 221-212 vote along party lines, with all Republicans voting to approve the inquiry and all Democrats voting against it.
What Does It Do?
House Resolution 918 sets specific procedures regarding the impeachment inquiry and formalizes it, which Hageman said “ensures the American people will receive the answers they deserve.”
Wednesday’s vote will direct the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees to continue their ongoing investigations into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Biden.
Democrats have labeled the Republican effort as an attempt to weaponize impeachment at the behest of former President Donald Trump.
“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Biden said of Republicans in a statement after the vote. “Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”
Republicans have said the vote was necessary to continue carrying out the investigation into Biden amid anticipated legal challenges from the White House.
“The White House has challenged House subpoenas on the grounds that the existing impeachment probe wasn’t authorized,” Hageman said. “By formalizing the inquiry that is already underway, the legal ambiguity of the investigation will be removed and the ability to enforce subpoenas will be enhanced.”
Hageman also said the vote grants Republicans just as many rights to question witnesses and enforce subpoenas as was awarded to Democrats in their impeachment inquiries against Trump, who was eventually impeached twice.
“Every member of congress, regardless of party, should have the intellectual curiosity to want answers to the inconsistencies that have been uncovered and the evidence that has been building,” Hageman said. “We owe it to the American people to deliver the truth.”
What Did He Do?
Over the past year, House Republicans have conducted an investigation into Biden’s actions, which although has raised certain levels of intrigue and suspicion on certain fronts, has failed to produce any concrete evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors on the president’s part.
House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Kentucky, has been leading an aggressive investigation for months into claims that Biden was involved in his son’s foreign business affairs during his time as vice-president.
But Hageman said there have been “inconsistencies and outright lies” told by Biden. Some have speculated that false claims Biden has made that his son didn’t receive money from entities in China could constitute an obstruction of justice.
“The issue is whether we should turn a blind eye to what looks an awful lot like bribery at the highest levels of our government, and whether our foreign policy has been influenced by familial conflicts,” she said.
Some of the charges against Biden include that he received payments through shell corporations connected to his son Hunter and brother James Biden. More than 150 Biden family transactions have been flagged by U.S. banks for review. Biden has defended the payments as lending his son and brother money that he was eventually paid back.
He also sent 5,400 emails under pseudonyms, had lunch with oligarchs and conference calls with his son’s business associates.
Using their subpoena power, Republicans have obtained more than 36,000 pages of bank records; 2,000 pages of suspicious activity reports from the Treasury Department; and dozens of hours of testimony from two of Hunter Biden’s business partners, a senior official from the National Archives and Records Administration, seven federal agents and three U.S. attorneys.
Wyoming Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis have also said they support the impeachment inquiry.
“The issue is whether we should turn a blind eye to what looks an awful lot like bribery at the highest levels of our government, and whether our foreign policy has been influenced by familial conflicts,” Hageman said.
Hunter And Joe
Hunter Biden, who is under indictment for federal tax and gun charges, has repeatedly denied that his father had any ties to his business dealings. The investigation is focusing on those federal charges and Hunter Biden’s work overseas.
Investigators also are examining whether the Biden administration interfered with the Justice Department investigation of Hunter Biden and whether the president mishandled classified documents when he was vice president or a senator.
On Wednesday morning, Hunter Biden defied a subpoena to sit for a private deposition on the investigation. He said he would be willing to testify publicly, but not behind closed doors.
The president’s son said Republicans have invaded his privacy over the last six years and spread a false narrative about his father.
“They ridiculed my struggle with addiction; they belittled my recovery; and they have tried to dehumanize me — all to embarrass and damage my father, who has devoted his entire public life to service,” he said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
