Republicans voted to formalize their ongoing impeachment inquiry. At issue is whether President Joe Biden was connected to or benefited from his son Hunter's shady dealings.
The party's 221-212 vote opens the door for the GOP to get more evidence about plans that gave the Biden family millions from countries including China, Ukraine and Romania.
And now more bank records, mortgage data, emails, text messages and cellphones are being subpoenaed for the Bidens, along with everything else Congress wants to see.
Since early 2023, Republicans have been investigating Joe Biden over his alleged ties to his son Hunter's highly lucrative, multimillion-dollar, decades-long influence trading scheme.
With a formal vote on an impeachment inquiry, Republicans say the White House can no longer block them from requested documents and testimony. But top GOP leaders have argued that isn't necessary.
“You don't need a full vote of the House to conduct an impeachment inquiry, to conduct the inquiry that we are constitutionally obligated to do,” GOP Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told before the vote.
The party's 221-212 vote opens the door for the GOP to get more evidence about plans that led to the Biden family receiving millions from countries including China, Ukraine and Romania
The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to give full authorization to the impeachment inquiry against Biden – setting itself up for bitter legal battles with the Biden team
It also comes on the day Republicans sought to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress when he defied their subpoena
“But they are preventing witnesses from testifying, the National Archives is withholding thousands of documents,” he claimed.
And the White House will not “acknowledge or honor these subpoenas without a vote,” Emmer continued.
He said that when confronted with this fact, new Speaker Mike Johnson said, “If we're going to have to go to court to enforce this anyway, you might as well remove whatever objections they have,” Emmer continued.
Speaker Johnson and his leadership team praised the House of Representatives for taking a “critical step in our investigation” by authorizing the impeachment inquiry.
“While President Biden continues to block lawful subpoenas from Congress, today's vote by the full House of Representatives authorizing the investigation puts us in the best position to enforce these subpoenas in court,” said Johnson, Emmer, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and the GOP- Chair Elise Stefanik in a joint statement.
With full approval, Republicans plan to include Hunter staffers Rob Walker, Eric Schwerin, Tony Bobulinski and Kevin Morris. They also hope to obtain the rest of the Biden pseudonym emails, which the National Archives says the GOP is not making available.
President Biden criticized House Republicans' “baseless” impeachment stunt in a statement after the vote.
He said Congress still has a lot of work to do – including approving additional funding for Ukraine, Israel and the southern border.
“There is still much work to be done.” “But after wasting weeks trying to find a new House speaker and having to expel their own members, Republicans are walking out of Congress for a month without taking action on these urgent issues to address challenges,” said the President.
“Instead of doing anything to improve the lives of Americans, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Biden continued.
The vote came just hours after Republicans launched proceedings to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress when he defied their subpoena.
Republicans subpoenaed Hunter to testify last month along with James Biden, Joe's brother. And Hunter was scheduled to appear for his scheduled closed-door testimony at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
But the president's son gave a dramatic five-minute speech on Capitol Hill in which he defended his father and explained the struggles he had with his crack cocaine addiction, while also criticizing Republicans for exploiting his situation.
Hunter then sped away in an Escalade from the closed-door deposition room, violating the terms of the subpoena.
The National Archives has turned over tens of thousands of documents to House Republicans.
The DOJ, FBI, IRS and National Archives have provided nine witnesses to discuss ongoing investigations, and the Treasury Department has provided 2,000 pages of suspicious activity reports.
The Oversight Committee also obtained and combed through over 37,000 pages of bank records and hours of whistleblower testimony.
But Republicans insist there is more to see.
For example, they are demanding more information about the 82,000 emails that Joe Biden sent under a pseudonym and which related to both official and family matters.
They are also seeking more information about Hunter's 2014 and 2015 taxes – special counsel David Weiss admitted that the statute of limitations had expired because Hunter failed to pay taxes on $1 million in income from Burisma.
“So now you have the indictments in nine cases from last week, none of them over 2014, 15. This has been – this is a really important year for respect for the vice presidency.”
Republicans are investigating the extent to which Joe Biden was involved in his son's foreign business dealings. They point out that Biden is pressuring Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who investigated Burisma and whom he accused of corruption.
Republicans are investigating the extent to which Joe Biden was involved in his son's foreign business dealings
They also point to the testimony of Hunter associate Devon Archer, who said Joe Biden had been in contact with Hunter's business partners about 20 times over the course of 10 years – either on the phone or over dinner.
Hunter Biden gave an emotional five-minute address to the press in which he admitted, “In the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances.”
But he said: “[Republicans] “I took the light of my father's love and portrayed it as darkness.” Hunter said his father was never involved in any of his business ventures.
“My father had no financial interest in my company, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with the Chinese private entrepreneur, not in my investments at home and abroad, and certainly not as an artist.”'