The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives voted to formally authorize his impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden.
Until now, the House had not received enough votes to legitimize the ongoing investigation, but on Wednesday, lawmakers voted 221-212, with all Republicans voting in favor and all members of Biden’s Democratic Party against.
The decision to hold a vote came as Republican Chairman Mike Johnson and his team faced increasing pressure to demonstrate progress in what has become a nearly year-long investigation into the business dealings of members of the Biden family.
The vote came hours after his son Hunter Biden defied a congressional subpoena by failing to appear for a private testimony in the House of Representatives. He refused to testify behind closed doors, saying he would only testify in public because he feared his words would otherwise be distorted.
Here’s what you need to know:
What is an impeachment investigation?
An impeachment inquiry is a formal procedure investigation about possible wrongdoing by a federal official, such as the president, cabinet officials or judges.
The process is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and is the most powerful check Congress has on the executive branch. This is a first step toward possible impeachment, which essentially means charges are brought against an official.
The American founders included indictment in the constitution as an option for the removal of presidents, vice presidents and civil officers. Under the Constitution, they can be removed from office for “treason, corruption or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
While the House of Representatives exercises the power to impeach an official, only the Senate has the power to convict and remove an individual from office. This happened recently when former President Donald Trump was indicted twice by the House but acquitted in the Senate.
To date, no president has ever been forced from the White House through impeachment proceedings, but Joe Biden is the eighth president to face an impeachment inquiry. Only three other presidents have been impeached after investigation: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Trump.
Why is this happening now?
The House of Representatives launched a indictment investigation in September, but the process is now formalized.
In November, a top White House prosecutor claimed the investigation was illegitimate because the House had not yet formalized the impeachment inquiry with a vote. The White House has questioned the legal and constitutional basis for Republican lawmakers’ requests for information.
The Constitution does not require a vote to launch an impeachment inquiry, nor do the rules governing the House, but authorizing resolutions have been passed in previous presidential impeachments.
Most Republicans who were initially reluctant to support impeachment proceedings due to the lack of concrete evidence against the president were also swayed by their leaders’ more recent argument that allowing the investigation would give them a better legal position and would convince the White House to fully cooperate with the investigation by providing more information.
“This vote is not a vote to impeach President Biden,” Johnson said at a news conference Tuesday. “This is a vote to continue the impeachment inquiry. …I believe we will get every vote we have.
Congressional investigators have already obtained nearly 40,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records and dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including several senior Justice Department officials currently charged with investigating Hunter Biden.
Is there enough evidence against Joe Biden?
Republicans have accused the president and his family of profiting from his tenure as vice president from 2009 to 2017 and focusing on his son’s business activities.
Conservatives accuse Hunter Biden of “influence peddling,” using his family’s name in “pay-to-play” schemes in his business dealings in Ukraine and China.
They pointed to a 2020 FBI document in which an informant claims the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that included Hunter Biden on its board, said, “It cost $5 (million) to pay a Biden, and 5 (million) million) to another Biden.
This corruption allegation is linked to the Republican allegation that President Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor in order to stop an investigation into Burisma.
Democrats reiterated that the Justice Department investigated the Burisma case when Trump was president and closed the case after eight months, finding “insufficient evidence” to pursue the case.
Burisma chief Mykola Zlochevsky said no one from the company had any contact with Joe Biden or his aides and that the elder Biden “did not help the company.”
Devon Archer, an associate of Hunter Biden, told the House Oversight Committee in July that the younger Biden sought to create “an illusion of access to his father” and put his father on the phone with associates foreigners “maybe 20 times” during this period. the course of about 10 years.
Archer, however, said those conversations did not involve any business dealings and that he was not aware of any wrongdoing on the part of President Biden.
Hunter Biden faces a range of legal problems. In September, prosecutors from the office of U.S. Special Prosecutor David Weiss accused him for making false statements about illegal drug use when purchasing a firearm. And last week, a grand jury indicted Hunter Biden on tax violations.
He has pleaded not guilty to all three federal gun-related charges and his lawyer says he has paid his taxes in full.
“There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because that didn’t happen,” Hunter Biden told reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
After he defied their subpoena, members of the House Oversight Committee said they would take steps to keep him in custody for contempt of Congress, which could potentially result in prison time.
Could President Biden be removed from office?
Analysts said the Republican effort will almost certainly fail to remove Joe Biden from office. Even if the House achieves the simple majority required to impeach the president, the Senate would then have to vote to convict him of these charges by a two-thirds majority — a near impossibility in a chamber where Democrats hold a 51-to-5 majority. 49.
But going through the impeachment inquiry process could help Republicans shine a light on their corruption allegations through much of the 2024 election campaign, in which President Biden is running for re-election. It will also allow the three Republican-controlled House committees leading the investigation to subpoena documents and testimony — and allow judges to enforce those requests.
“Since September, the House has been engaged in an impeachment inquiry,” Rep. Tom Cole said Wednesday. “Today’s resolution simply formalizes this investigation and grants the House full authority to enforce its subpoenas that were refused as recently as today.”
President Biden also responded to Wednesday’s vote: “Instead of doing anything to improve the lives of Americans, they are working to attack me with lies. Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political operation that even congressional Republicans admit is not supported by the facts. »
