Republicans in the House of Representatives publish impeachment report against Biden, but further steps are uncertain

WASHINGTON– Republicans in the House of Representatives have released their first impeachment report against President Joe Biden, alleging abuse of power and obstruction of justice in the financial dealings of his son Hunter Biden and his family.

The Republicans' nearly year-long investigation stops short of accusing the president of criminal wrongdoing. Instead, the nearly 300-page report, released Monday, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, covers familiar ground: It alleges the Biden family traded its “brand” in corrupt business activities that meet the Constitution's high bar for impeachment.

With Biden out of re-election, the next steps are highly uncertain. Republicans in the House have not received support from within their own ranks for impeaching the president, and impeachment by the Senate is even less likely. Many Republicans prefer to focus their attention on the Democratic Party's likely presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is currently under investigation.

The White House has dismissed the impeachment proceedings as a “stunt” and urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to “move on.”

“The extent of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the committees is egregious,” wrote the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary and Ways and Means that committees lead the investigation.

The report states that the constitutionally enshrined “remedy for flagrant abuse of power by a president is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate.”

Republicans have spent most of their time in the House majority focusing excessively on Biden and his family's business dealings, encouraged by Donald Trump, who is currently launching a comeback attack on the White House even as the twice-impeached and impeached former president has been re-impeached.

The impeachment inquiry has been a cornerstone of Republican efforts in the House. It was initiated by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy shortly before he was ousted from leadership and formalized in December under new Speaker Mike Johnson. Republicans are investigating many aspects of the Biden family's finances, dating back to 2009, when he was vice president under Barack Obama.

In a statement Monday, Johnson was noncommittal about what the House of Representatives will do with the results. “We encourage all Americans to read this report,” he said.

Based on bank records, interviews with around 30 witnesses, whistleblower reports and millions of documents, Republicans in the House of Representatives claim that Hunter Biden and his associates have been able to arrange foreign business deals for years by exploiting the family's proximity to power in Washington.

The focus of the report is not on Biden's time as president, but on the years when the Biden family was in turmoil following the death of his eldest son Beau in 2015 and when the vice president retired from elected office and gave up a presidential run in 2016.

Hunter Biden has admitted to developing a severe crack addiction during those years. He was convicted of a weapons offense in June and will go on trial next month on a federal tax offense.

Former Hunter Biden aide Devon Archer, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 2022 in a separate matter, told the committee: “Ultimately, the brand is part of what was delivered.”

To link the elder Biden to his son's actions, Republicans rely on a series of phone calls and brief dinner visits that Joe Biden made while Hunter was conducting business. At times, Hunter put his father on speakerphone for his guests while father and son exchanged pleasantries.

The Bidens are known for their close family bond and admit that they speak to each other almost daily, including during this time, with the father inquiring about his son's well-being.

In his own defiant closed-door testimony to House investigators, Hunter Biden insisted that he did not involve his father in his business dealings.

In total, House Republicans claim the Biden family and its associates received about $27 million in business payments from partners or clients in Russia, China and other countries. They allege another $8 million in loans, including some from Hunter Biden's benefactor Kevin Morris, a Hollywood lawyer, and question purchases of the son's artwork.

The report said it was “unimaginable” that President Biden did not understand what was going on.

“President Biden was involved in a conspiracy to monetize his office as a public trust to enrich his family,” the report said.

Biden himself declined a request to testify before the House of Representatives.

All pages of the report are filled with references to the Democrats' impeachment proceedings against Trump, while Republicans try to contrast the reasons for his impeachment with the Biden family's business dealings and “frauds.”

But the differences are glaring, as actual criminal charges are being brought against the indicted Trump, including conspiracy to overturn Biden's 2020 election and to recruit supporters to Washington on the day of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The report also accuses Biden of obstruction of justice in the investigation, echoing previously raised complaints about the Justice Department's handling of the investigation into Hunter Biden. Attorney General Merrick Garland has firmly rejected these allegations and defended the department against accusations of political influence.

The report focuses heavily on long-standing Republican allegations of a pattern of “slow” investigative steps and delays in enforcement actions in favor of the president's son.

However, the report provides no evidence that Biden was involved in the investigation into his son, which was launched under Trump's presidency and led by a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney from Delaware. U.S. Attorney David Weiss was retained by Garland to protect the investigation from allegations of political interference.

Garland stressed that no one in the White House had given him or other senior Justice Department officials instructions on how to handle the investigation into Hunter Biden.

In addition to Hunter Biden, the report contains details about Joe Biden's brother James' involvement in various family businesses.

Republicans point to a series of payments that they say show the president benefited from his brother's work. They point to a personal check for $200,000 from James Biden to Joe Biden on the same day in 2018 that James Biden received an equal amount from Americore, a healthcare company.

House Democrats defended the transaction, pointing to bank records they say indicate that James Biden was repaying a loan from his brother, who had wired him $200,000 about six weeks earlier. The money changed hands while Joe Biden was a private citizen.

While House Republicans have not initiated impeachment proceedings against Biden, they are recommending that the Justice Department prosecute Hunter Biden and James Biden, accusing them of making false statements to Congress as part of the Republican investigation. Lawyers for these men argue that these allegations are baseless or merely a distraction.

Until recently, the president was a focal point for Republicans in Congress, but his decision last month to drop out of the presidential race and Harris' rise to the top of the ballot forced Republican leadership to rethink their key investigations.

A year ago, GOP lawmakers had hoped that the Biden investigation would make a strong enough case for the “high crimes and misdemeanors” of impeachment. But as the investigation dragged on and investigators were unable to present direct evidence against Biden in public hearings or even in closed sessions, concerns grew among moderate Republicans wary of a vote on the matter.

The report released on Monday mentions the “Biden-Harris administration” more than 20 times, while previous publications by the investigative committees against Biden were mostly limited to direct references to him.

And although Harris alone is not mentioned in the report, the same investigative committees have begun launching new investigations into her and her vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz.

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Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Gary Fields, Fatima Hussein and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.