March 22 (UPI) — House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Friday his committee had subpoenaed President Joe Biden ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer. Jordan’s subpoena seeks audio recordings and transcripts of Zwonitzer’s conversations with Biden.
Jordan, citing Special Counsel Robert K. Hur’s report, alleges Biden read classified documents to Zwonitzer for Biden’s memoirs.
Hur decided not to file any criminal charges against Biden or Zwonitzer over the documents.
It’s the latest GOP effort in an attempt to impeach Biden without yet identifying any specific high crimes or misdemeanors that would justify an impeachment.
In a letter sent to Zwonitzer, Jordan wrote that the special counsel’s report on Biden’s possession of classified documents after he left the vice presidency said that “during many of the interviews with his ghostwriter, Biden read from his notebooks nearly verbatim.”
Jordan told Zwonitzer in the letter that according to Hur’s report, “at least three times Biden read classified notes from national security meetings” nearly verbatim.
The Special Counsel said in his report that Biden had “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” after serving as vice president. Biden turned over the documents voluntarily when they were discovered to be in his possession.
Hur’s report also said the ghostwriter tried to conceal recordings, but Hur’s team got them in his investigation.
The House Republican impeachment hearings have struggled to identify evidence of specific impeachment-worthy acts by Biden.
During a Wednesday impeachment hearing, Lev Parnas, a convicted former aide to Rudy Giuliani, blasted Republicans for “doing the bidding” of Russia in pushing false allegations about President Biden.
An FBI informant whose testimony Republicans relied on was arrested on federal charges that he lied about Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings in Urkaine.
Justice Department prosecutors said Alexander Smirnov admitted that people associated with Russian intelligence were involved in planting a false narrative about the Biden’s.