US House Republicans release impeachment report on President Joe Biden

Republicans in the United States House of Representatives have released a report alleging Democratic President Joe Biden committed impeachable offences, but it is unclear whether they would push for a vote following a probe that the White House has long dismissed as politically motivated.

A 291-page report by three House committees alleged that Biden profited from an influence-peddling scheme to enrich himself and members of his family through foreign business dealings beginning in 2014 when Biden was vice president.

Jim Jordan, head of the Judiciary Committee, said the investigation showed “conclusively” that Biden had “abused his public office for the private financial benefit of the Biden family and Biden business associates.”

“President Biden’s legacy is marked by abuse of public office, corruption and obstruction. The evidence produced by our impeachment inquiry is the strongest case for impeachment of a sitting president the House of Representatives has ever investigated,” said James Comer, head of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

But the nearly yearlong inquiry released by the Republicans on Monday, stops short of alleging any criminal wrongdoing by the president, who decided last month not to run for re-election this year.

Instead, the report, also released on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, covers familiar ground, asserting the Biden family traded on its “brand” in business ventures in corrupt ways that rise to the US Constitution’s high bar for impeachment.

Republicans have for years used Biden’s son Hunter’s foreign links and chaotic personal life as a recovering drug addict to try to embarrass his father.

They have alleged the Biden family and its associates received about $27m in business payments from partners or clients in Russia, China and other countries. They alleged an additional $8m in loans, including some from Hunter Biden benefactor Kevin Morris, a Hollywood attorney, and question the purchases of the son’s artwork.

The report said it is “inconceivable” that President Biden did not understand what was going on.

“President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the report alleged.

Political ‘stunt’

Biden – set to deliver a swan song speech at the Democratic convention and pass the political torch to his vice president, Kamala Harris – has repeatedly denied helping his son’s business ventures, including in Ukraine and China.

The White House has dismissed the House impeachment inquiry as a “stunt” and encouraged House Republicans to “move on”.

Many also see the Republicans’ report as a bid for revenge over the two impeachments of Republican Donald Trump when he was president. Trump, who survived both trials in the Senate, is his party’s presidential candidate for a third time and will face Harris in the November 5 election.

Meanwhile, with President Biden no longer running for re-election, the next steps are uncertain.

House Republicans have not had support from their own ranks to actually impeach the president, and removal by the Senate, which Democrats control with the help of a few independent members, is even further afield.

Many Republicans also prefer to focus attention now on Harris.

While Harris is not mentioned in Monday’s report, the same committees leading the inquiry have begun to open new probes into her and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.