House impeachment investigators “will use all of the tools at their disposal” to determine whether President Joe Biden committed impeachable offenses, according to a 30-page memorandum released by the probe’s leaders.
The memorandum, released late Wednesday night by the House Committees on Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means, provides an extensive overview of the House’s impeachment power and evidence already uncovered to justify the probe. The committees are led by Chairmen Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY), and Jason Smith (R-MO), respectively.
Investigators have pursued three questions, according to the memo:
(1) foreign money received by the Biden family, (2) President Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s foreign business entanglements, and (3) steps taken by the Biden Administration to slow, hamper, or otherwise impede the criminal investigation of the President’s son, Robert Hunter Biden, which involves funds received by the Biden family from foreign sources.
“As a result of these investigations, the Committees have uncovered significant new information that raises serious concerns as to whether the President has abused his federal office to enrich his family and conceal his and/or his family’s misconduct.”
The evidence collected thus far by the committees about the Biden family’s business practices and Joe Biden’s participation in those activities is extensive and includes “bank records, discussions with former business associates, interviews with investigators from the Hunter Biden criminal investigation, and government records from the Department of the Treasury, National Archives and Records Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation , and Internal Revenue Service.”
Hunter Biden’s messages, including messages among Biden family members, have also been reviewed.
The three committees will initially focus on four questions to determine if Biden engaged in impeachable conduct.
First, did Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President, take any official action or effect any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to his family or him from foreign interests?
…
Second, did Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President, abuse his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him?
…
Third, did Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President, abuse his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him?
…
Fourth, did Joe Biden abuse his power as President to impede, obstruct, or otherwise hinder investigations (including Congressional investigations) or the prosecution of Hunter Biden? (Emphasis in original)
Much of the evidence uncovered to this point appears particularly damning to the President’s claims of being uninvolved and unaware of his family’s activities. As the memo points out, “As recently as 2019, Hunter Biden texted a member of his own family ‘I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro [sic] 30 years . . . [U]nlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.’”
The committee references other evidence as well, much of which has been reported by Breitbart News:
Devon Archer, a longtime Biden business associate, during an interview with the Oversight Committee, described the Biden “brand” as well as how Hunter Biden placed Joe Biden on phone calls, including on speaker phone, approximately “20 times” with business associates. Rob Walker, another longtime Biden associate, described Joe Biden taking meetings with certain business partners. Archer also explained how then-Vice President Biden sat at dinners with oligarchs who paid his son millions of dollars and met for coffee in Beijing with his son’s Chinese business partner. Tony Bobulinski, another Biden associate, has confirmed that Joe Biden was the “big guy” referenced in an email explaining how he and others would divide equity in a joint venture with a corrupt Chinese company. This reference to the “big guy” has been corroborated by reference to Joe Biden as the “big guy” in an FBI document generated prior to the publicization of the email Bobulinski referenced. That same FBI document details a bribery scheme in which the President allegedly participated with his son.
The memo also addresses a prominent Democrat talking point surrounding its powers to conduct the investigations without a House vote, concluding that the Constitution “includes no requirement that the full House vote to start an impeachment inquiry. Neither do the Rules of the House of Representatives.
“In fact, the House has launched several impeachment inquiries without a full House vote, and four years ago a federal district court expressly rejected the argument that a House resolution is required to begin an impeachment inquiry.”
Preventing future corruption by a President or Vice President’s family will be an important component of the probe’s work. Based on its findings, the probe’s leaders will consider “legislation aimed at imposing disclosure requirements regarding the financial interests of the family members.”
The memo states there is no “artificial timeline” for providing its conclusions and recommendations to the full House.
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Follow Bradley Jaye on Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.