President Joe Biden’s possible involvement in his son Hunter’s business dealings, and pressure from within the House GOP Conference, triggered Speaker Kevin McCarthy to push for an impeachment inquiry.
“House Republicans have uncovered serious allegations into President Biden’s misconduct. Taken together these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption,” McCarthy said in a video posted on X Tuesday. “Here’s what we know so far. Through our investigations we have found that President Biden did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings. Eyewitnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions, dinners that resulted in cars and millions of dollars and his son’s business partners.”
Biden’s Dinners
These business partners were not just anyone. Participants in the Café Milano dinners in 2014 and 2015 allegedly included individuals with ties to the Russian criminal underworld and the successor to the KGB, the Federal Security Bureau. Devon Archer testified in July that Yelena Baturina attended with her husband, former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzkkov, and that they were joined by FSB-linked Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev in 2014. A year later, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharsky reportedly joined them.
“We know that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to the Biden family members and associates through various shell companies. The Treasury Department alone has over 150 transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates that were flagged as suspicious activity by U.S. banks … Vice President Biden used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partners,” McCarthy said. “Despite all of this, it appears that Biden’s family has been afforded special treatment by Biden’s own administration, treatment that the would not have received if they were not related to the president.”
McCarthy noted that he believes that Biden has abused his office, and that it warrants further investigation by the House of Representatives.
“I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” McCarthy said. “This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all of the facts and the answers for the American public.”
Impeachment Inquiry Differs From Actual Impeachment
An impeachment inquiry differs from impeachment in that it gives the House of Representatives broader subpoena authority to obtain records. South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the House still has not obtained Joe Biden’s bank records.
The Justice Department stonewalled requests for information about interference in the prosecution of Hunter Biden.
The FBI also only released an FD-1023 that suggested that Joe Biden received a $5 million bribe from Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky after considerable cajoling. This money allegedly was paid in exchange for getting Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin fired.
Comer Wants Answers on Burisma
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer now demands that the State Department turn over documentation related to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s dealings with regard to Ukraine. Emails show that Biden may have shared privileged information about a conversation he was set to have with Ukrainian President Poro Poroshenko, and copied Hunter Biden.
The White House says Joe Biden pushed for Shokin’s removal because he was corrupt, even though State Department records show that it praised him for rooting out corruption. Shokin told Fox News last month that he believes that the Bidens accepted bribes to get him fired. However, he offered no evidence.
“The Committee seeks to understand the State Department’s sudden change in disposition towards the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General in late 2015. On June 11, 2015, then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland wrote Prosecutor General Shokin, applauding his office’s progress in anti-corruption efforts,” Comer wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “By late 2015, however, the removal of Prosecutor General Shokin became a condition of the loan guarantee by the United States. In March 2016, Shokin was dismissed from his position by the Ukrainian Rada after months of public pressure most adamantly applied by then-Vice President Biden.”
Comer continued, “The timing of these events is notable to the Committee. During the Committee’s transcribed interview with Devon Archer—a longtime Biden family associate—Archer explained that by late 2015, Vadym Pozharsky, Burisma’s corporate secretary, was increasingly pushing Hunter Biden to deliver help from the U.S. government regarding pressure Zlochevsky was facing from the Office of the Prosecutor General and abroad.”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
