House Republicans laid out their evidence Thursday at the first impeachment inquiry hearing for President Joe Biden and argued more evidence will be on the way.
While Democrats hammered the point that the hearing did not provide enough evidence of criminal activity by President Biden, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said the witnesses confirmed the seriousness of the evidence and the need for more investigation, an investigation that Republicans say so far has been hampered.
“I think that if my Republican colleagues had a so-called smoking gun, they would have presented it by now and would have talked about it,” Rep. Summer Lee, D-Penn., said at the hearing.
Comer interrupted: “Can the gentlelady read a bank statement, an email, a text message?”
Rep. Lee continued on: “Reclaiming my time. Thank you. Reclaiming my time. Instead, we’re sitting here with no fact witnesses and no evidence in this sham so-called impeachment to distract from their inability to fulfill their basic duty.”
That exchange summed up much of the partisan divide over the hearing, whether the evidence was sufficient or if there was evidence at all.
Near the end of the hearing, Comer announced that he is issuing subpoenas for Hunter Biden’s and James Biden’s business and personal bank records.
“The witnesses today have all identified the evidence that the committee has uncovered as deserving further inquiry,” Comer said. “And that is what this committee will do, no matter where that evidence leads.”
Those records could help show whether or not money was personally transferred to the president, either directly or indirectly through shell companies.
Despite Democrats’ push for more evidence to justify the proceedings, the six-hour hearing did allow House Republicans to hammer the evidence they do have. They pointed to 150 suspicious activity reports involving Hunter and James Biden as well as an FBI confidential informant document reporting a conversation in which a Ukrainian executive claims to have bribed President Biden.
IRS whistleblowers also testified before Congress that the Biden family and associates received more than $20 million from overseas entities. Bank records released by the Oversight Committee show those payments came from around the world.
“We have established in the first phase of this investigation where this money has come from: Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, China,” Comer said. “It was funneled through shell companies and third parties to hide the Bidens’ fingerprints.”
Democrats have repeatedly pushed back on Republicans, saying the impeachment effort focuses on Hunter Biden but does not have enough evidence to target the president.
“I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment,” George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley said at the hearing, a comment Democrats quickly circulated on social media.
Turley did say there was enough evidence to continue the inquiry.
Republicans argue the impeachment inquiry will help them to get the answers and documentation they need. Evidence has steadily been released, with even just this week news breaking that Hunter Biden received more than a quarter of a million dollars via a wire transfer from a Chinese nation via a wire transfer that listed the elder Biden’s address in Wilmington, Delaware. He was running for president at the time of the transfer.
“Never forget four fundamental facts: One, Hunter Biden gets put on the board of Burisma, gets paid a lot of money,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “Fact number two: Hunter Biden is not qualified to sit on the board. Not my words. His words. He says he got on the board because of the brand, because of the name. Fact number three: the executives at Burisma ask Hunter Biden to weigh in and help them with the pressure they are under from the prosecutor in Ukraine. Fact number four: Joe Biden goes to Ukraine on December 9, 2015, gives the speech attacking the prosecutor that starts the process of getting that guy fired.”
House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., also pointed to evidence his committee released this week obtained in part from IRS whistleblowers.
“Whether it was lunches, phone calls, White House meetings, or official foreign trips, Hunter Biden cashed in by arranging access to Joe Biden, the family brand,” Smith said. “The Biden family and their associates received millions in payments from foreign sources, including from Russia, China, Ukraine, Romania, and in one email, Hunter Biden even bragged that he cut a deal for $10 million from just one company for ‘introductions alone.’ And yet the DOJ wanted to keep the spotlight as far from Joe Biden as possible.”
Democrats backed Biden, though, saying the impeachment inquiry is simply an effort to distract from the legal woes facing the Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination: former President Donald Trump.
Trump faces dozens of charges across multiple jurisdictions, setting him up for a slew of court dates in the middle of election season.
“So let’s get it straight,” U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member on the committee, said at the hearing. “We’re 62 hours away from shutting down the government of the United States of America, and Republicans are launching an impeachment drive based on a long debunked and discredited lie.”
