McCarthy: Biden Investigation 'Rising to Level' of Impeachment Inquiry
22:52 GMT 25.07.2023 (Updated: 14:44 GMT 20.09.2023)
© AFP 2023 / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS
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US President Joe Biden has consistently stated he never discussed business with his son Hunter, go so far back as stating in August 2019 that he "never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses." To date, the White House denied the elder Biden ever kept business ties with Hunter.
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) recently stated that he believes the investigation into foreign business dealings by President Joe Biden's family may result in an impeachment inquiry.
The investigation is specifically focused on Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, his business dealings and if the US president received any payments by way of his son.
“When Biden was running for office, he told the public he has never talked about business. He said his family has never received a dollar from China, which we prove is not true,” McCarthy told Fox News host Sean Hannity late Monday, referring to comments the elder Biden made about not discussing business dealings with his son.
“We’ve only followed where the information has taken us. But Hannity, this is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed,” McCarthy added.
McCarthy also mentioned accusations by two IRS whistleblowers who said prosecutors slow-walked the investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax crimes and congressional investigations that showed the Biden family received millions of dollars from over 20 shell companies they set up, including from Chinese and Ukrainian nationals.
25 July 2023, 18:42 GMT
The IRS whistleblowers also alleged they were prevented from following leads that may have led to President Biden.
“[T]his president has also used something we have not seen since Richard Nixon: Use the weaponization of government to benefit his family and deny Congress the ability to have the oversight,” McCarthy said while explaining why an impeachment inquiry is necessary.
Last week, Republicans released an FBI document in which a confidential source outlined conversations they allegedly had with Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky.
The source in that document alleges Zlochevsky hired Hunter Biden to leverage his connection to his father and sent payments to the Bidens to squash an investigation into Burisma by then-Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin.
21 July 2023, 18:59 GMT
Then-Vice President Biden bragged on video about the dismissal handed down to Shokin, who was accused of corruption by the US and some European countries, by threatening to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine.
In 2019, a phone call between former US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine if it did not investigate Joe and Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country led to Trump’s first impeachment.
The source in the FBI document also alleges Zlochevsky indicated he was coerced into paying the Biden family, and that he recorded conversations with both Hunter and Joe Biden. The accusations laid out in the document have not been proven and Democrats have pointed to a document from Trump’s 2019 impeachment trial in which Zlochevsky reportedly told associates to Trump-era official Rudy Giuliani that Burisma never had contact with Joe Biden during his tenure as vice president.
It was also reported in US media on Monday that Hunter Biden’s business associate Devon Archer plans to tell the House Oversight and Reform Committee that Hunter would often put his father on speaker phone during conversations with foreign business partners.
At her Monday briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierrre again denied the commander-in-chief has ever had a connection to his son’s business dealings.
"The answer is not going to change. The answer remains the same. The president was never in business with his son. I just don't have anything else to add," Jean-Pierre said when asked about the investigation.
Last month, a Hunter Biden Whatapp message from 2017 discovered by investigators was made public. In the message Hunter appears to use his father to leverage a business deal with a Chinese businessman.
"I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. [...] And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."
Photos found on Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop suggests Joe and Hunter Biden were both at Biden family's Wilmington, Delaware, home around the time the message was sent.
