GOP-led committees release Biden impeachment report without formally recommending the House move forward with impeachment
"... the 291-page report recycles previous unsupported claims to argue that Biden “knowingly participated” in a conspiracy to leverage his office while as vice president and beyond to financially benefit his family, and leaves it up to the House of Representatives to evaluate.
Republicans unveiled the report on the day the Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago, hours before Biden is expected to address the event in a keynote speech.
... It will all come down to House Speaker Mike Johnson and whether he decides to try to push through articles of impeachment during the three weeks the House returns to Washington in September while simultaneously addressing the crucial September 30 government funding deadline.
“I think it’s kind of a moot point now,” GOP Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, one of the trio of committees leading the inquiry, told CNN last month.
...The Republican-led report claims to “expose a years-long pattern of influence peddling and grift centered around and facilitated by Joe Biden.” However, it is largely a retread of
previous GOP theories that exaggerate Biden’s connections to his brother’s and son’s highly lucrative foreign business dealings, which the report claimed totaled “over $18 million from foreign sources.”
Perhaps the claim investigators said was most damning is the allegation that Hunter Biden, James Biden and their business partners knowingly sold “the brand” — or potential access to Joe Biden.
But one of these business partners
testified that they were only offering an “illusion” of access.
... Still, the report asserts that it was known “the Biden family business model centered on Joe Biden’s influence and positions of power,” citing Archer’s testimony. But that isn’t necessarily a new revelation: Even Hunter Biden has publicly
acknowledged that he would “probably not” have been tapped to serve on the highly paid board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma if he weren’t Joe Biden’s son.
... The committee said both the FBI and IRS investigations into Hunter Biden were hampered by red tape or required additional layers of approval and oversight before parts of the investigation could proceed — a result that the committee said was due to his father’s then-position as a former vice president, and a likely future candidate for the top of the ticket. The tax investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018, before Biden announced his 2020 candidacy. The FBI, with the assistance of the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, opened a separate probe into his business dealings in 2019.
... While witnesses acknowledged the Bidens’ prominence in Delaware added to the sensitivity surrounding the home-state investigation into Hunter Biden, examples provided in the report seemed to reflect on the anxieties of the agents involved in the investigation rather than any influence from Biden. ..."
