Evidence may prove that US President Joe Biden committed “impeachable offenses,” the Louisiana Republican who was recently elected House Speaker has stated.
“If in fact all the evidence leads to where we believe it will, that’s very likely impeachable offenses, that’s listed as a cause for impeachment in the Constitution… Bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors,” Mike Johnson stated in a US media interview.
Johnson, who himself sits on the House Judiciary Committee, referenced James Comer (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and his investigation, emphasizing that documents and bank records accumulated were the reason why the House shifted into the impeachment inquiry stage on the US President, adding:
“We are going to follow the truth where it leads, engage in due process… The evidence is coming together.”
Further along in the interview the host voiced the view, shared by increasingly many House GOP and rank-and-file Americans, as per polls, that 80-year-old President Joe Biden has been struggling cognitively. To this, Mike Johnson agreed, and responded by referring to this as a "concerning reality."
“If you look at a tape of Joe Biden making an argument in the Senate Judiciary Committee a few years ago and you see a speech that he delivers now, there’s a difference. Again, it’s not a personal insult to him. It’s just reality,” stated Johnson.
The new gavel-holder in the House also summed up his current vision of the Biden administration as a "failed presidency.”
Regarding Johnson's determination to proceed further with the GOP resolve to impeach Joe Biden, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee told US media that in his opinion the new Speaker "is more than happy to move forward, and will move forward, and the only question is the timeline." Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene agreed, adding: “I definitely think he’ll be supportive.”
This comes as information reportedly obtained by Republican Senator Chuck Grassely revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has received "criminal information" from over 40 confidential sources over matters related to the Biden family. Grassley discovered that an FBI task force within the Washington Field office would, on occasion, shut the lid on reporting and information on Biden, James Biden, and Hunter Biden by multiple FBI offices, falsely discrediting the information as "foreign disinformation," and making sure that any investigations related to the family wrap up, a US broadcaster reported. The afore-mentioned confidential sources were ostensibly vetted and deemed unrelated to foreign, and especially Russian, sources, added the report. It was also stated that Grassley had written to US Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to confer about the surfaced information. Grassley was described as demanding answers from both the FBI and the DOJ by November, as facts pointed towards credible whistleblowers having blown the lid on an effort by both agencies to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family.
US President Joe Biden has been accused by Republicans, who hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, of profiting from his son Hunter Biden's shady overseas business ventures, including in Ukraine, during the Democrat’s time as vice-president to Barack Obama 2009 to 2017. Files discovered on Hunter Biden's abandoned "laptop from hell," coupled with testimony from whistleblowers, have indicated that Joe Biden sat in on online meetings with his son's partners where payments in return for political influence peddling were negotiated.
Joe Biden, however, has repeatedly denied involvement in his son’s business practices. In September, the US House Oversight Committee held the first hearing in an effort to bring impeachment articles against Biden. Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) initiated the inquiry, citing “serious and credible” allegations relating to the president’s alleged association with his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business relations. Republicans have pointed to testimony suggesting the US president was present at dinners and listened in on foreign business calls, while his use of aliases in email correspondence during his time as vice president has also been characterized as suspicious by conservative critics.Democrats have claimed the proceedings are a distraction from more pressing issues.