By Makini Brice and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republicans leading an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden detailed foreign payments to members of his family in their first hearing on Thursday, but did not provide evidence that the Democratic president had personally benefited.
The initial impeachment hearing by the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee served as a review of evidence that Republicans have gathered so far about foreign business ventures by Biden’s troubled son Hunter Biden, 53, which they say shows that Biden’s family members were selling access.
“The American people demand accountability for this culture of corruption,” House Oversight Committee chair James Comer said. He said Biden has lied about family members’ business dealings and had not walled them off from his official duties.
Democrats and several independent witnesses said there was no proof that Biden had received any of those payments, or otherwise engaged in improper behavior while he served as vice president between 2009 and 2017. The White House has denied wrongdoing and dismissed the probe as politically motivated.
“If Republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol they would be presenting it today. But they’ve got nothing,” said Jamie Raskin, the panel’s top Democrat.
Biden is campaigning for reelection in what will be a likely rematch with Republican Donald Trump, who is preparing for four upcoming criminal trials on a range of charges, from trying to overthrow his 2020 election defeat to mishandling classified documents are leaving office.
Trump, who was impeached twice during his four years in office, and some of his hardline Republican allies have for months called for a Biden impeachment.
Democrats prominently displayed a clock counting down the minutes until midnight Saturday, when the U.S. government will enter its fourth partial shutdown in a decade if Congress fails to pass legislation to fund federal agencies.
George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley and forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky said the panel had enough evidence to open an impeachment inquiry but did not have enough evidence to justify impeachment charges.
Another law professor, Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina, said he had not heard credible evidence to justify the probe and warned the panel that it was being driven by partisan concerns.
A fourth witness, former Justice Department official Eileen O’Connor, said she thought the department had soft-pedaled a criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, who now faces gun charges after years of struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.
Republicans allege Biden and his family profited from policies he pursued as vice president during former President Barack Obama’s administration between 2009 and 2017. Separately, they also allege the Justice Department interfered with the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden.
On Thursday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said that he had issued subpoenas for bank records belonging to Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, Frank Biden, as part of an investigation into the family’s financial dealings.
UNCLEAR PROSPECTS
It is unclear if House Republicans, who have a narrow 221-212 majority, would have the votes at the end of the inquiry to support actual impeachment. But even if that vote succeeded, it is highly unlikely that the Senate, where Democrats hold a 51-49 majority, would vote to remove Biden from office.
At the center of the investigation are allegations that Biden, as vice president, pressured Ukraine to fire a top prosecutor to shield Burisma, a company for which Hunter Biden was on the board of directors.
Numerous U.S. and foreign officials have said Biden was carrying out official policy to fight corruption in Ukraine.
Democrats unsuccessfully pressed the panel to subpoena former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who had sought to uncover evidence of Biden wrongdoing in Ukraine, as well as Lev Parnas, a former associate who has denounced Giuliani’s effort.
House Republicans have said they plan to seek personal and business bank records for Hunter Biden and James Biden, the president’s brother.
Comer cited payment records from Chinese nationals to Hunter in 2019, listing Joe Biden’s home address in Delaware as the beneficiary address. Republicans have not provided evidence that the elder Biden received the money.
“Once again Rep. Comer peddles lies to support a premise – some wrongdoing by Hunter Biden or his family – that evaporates in thin air the moment facts come out,” said Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, in a statement on Thursday. Lowell said the money in question was a loan and that the address listed was the address on Hunter Biden’s driver’s license at the time.
The White House said Republicans should focus on reaching a deal to keep the government open on Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
“The consequences for the American people will be very damaging,” the White House said at the hearing’s outset. “Nothing can distract from that.”
(Reporting by Makini Brice and Andy Sullivan; additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)
