House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the House could launch an impeachment inquiry as soon as September if the Biden administration doesn’t provide documents to show that President Biden was not involved in his family’s foreign business dealings and did not accept a bribe.
Mr. McCarthy told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Tuesday that, “the whole determination here is how the Bidens handle this.”
“If they provide us the documents, there wouldn’t be a need for [an] impeachment inquiry,” Mr. McCarthy said. “But if they withhold the documents and fight like they have now to not provide to the American public what they deserve to know, we will move forward with impeachment inquiry when we come back into session.”
The House, now on summer recess, will gavel back in on Sept. 12.
House investigators have obtained bank records and testimony from Biden family business associates that show the Bidens pocketed millions of dollars from foreign business deals during Mr. Biden’s vice presidency, appearing to leverage his powerful role in the Obama administration.
No bank records tie Mr. Biden directly to the money from the business deals, but investigators want access to the family’s bank records, citing evidence the then-vice president phoned in to son Hunter Biden’s business meetings and showed up in person for meetings at least a handful of times.
Mr. McCarthy said it was “appalling” what they have learned about Mr. Biden’s involvement with his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals.
“The thing that holds up whether we do [an] impeachment inquiry, provide us the documents we’re asking,” Mr. McCarthy said on the Fox Business Network. “The whole determination here is how the Bidens handled this.”
Mr. McCarthy said that opening an impeachment inquiry would give the House increased subpoena power to investigate the corruption allegations. Lawmakers, he said, want additional bank statements and credit card statements.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which is overseeing the probe, has not yet sought bank records from Hunter Biden or any other Biden family member but has requested and obtained records from family business associates.
The Democratic activist group Congressional Integrity Project scoffed at the GOP’s threat of an impeachment inquiry, citing lack of concrete evidence tying Mr. Biden to the foreign business deals.
“After eight months of House Republicans failing to find any evidence against President Biden they are still planning to launch a bogus impeachment inquiry – timed to distract from a government shutdown and Donald Trump’s 91 criminal charges across multiple jurisdictions,” Leslie Dach, senior advisor for the group, said in a statement. “McCarthy knows he has to appease the crazies in his caucus and appease Donald Trump. He can’t find any proof so now he wants to start an impeachment inquiry over documents Republicans haven’t even requested.”
Mr. McCarthy told Fox Business he wanted the Bidens to “show us where the money went, show us, were you taking money from outside sources.”
He said the Bidens “seem to fight it every step of the way.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss to serve as Special Counsel to investigate Hunter Biden following the collapse of his sweetheart plea deal on tax fraud and gun charges earlier this month. Republicans fear the special counsel status will lead Mr. Weiss to obstruct the House investigation by enabling him to withhold information.
“If they use this special counsel to say that they can’t provide us the information, then it just shows more politics and it will not stop us,” Mr. McCarthy said. “Then we would move to impeachment inquiry and we would be able to still get the documents that we need as we move forward.”
Mr. McCarthy first talked about the possibility of impeachment inquiries in late July, saying that Republican lawmakers would consider the inquiry over unproven claims of financial misconduct.
Source:Washington Times
