With Biden impeachment inquiry at a crossroads, GOP eyes next move

By LISA MASCARO

March 20, 2024 9:53 AM PT

WASHINGTON —

The House impeachment inquiry into President Biden is at a crossroads, with its leaders facing a lack of political appetite from within Republican ranks to go forward with an impeachment, but also facing pressure to deliver after months of work.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) pushed ahead at a hearing Wednesday, claiming the Democratic president was either “complicit” in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings or “incompetent” when it came to the family’s finances.

Comer has also shown interest in taking the inquiry in another direction, stopping short of drawing up articles of impeachment while eyeing potential criminal referrals of alleged Biden family wrongdoing to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

Hunter Biden declined to appear at Wednesday’s public hearing. He testified privately last month.

Comer said earlier on Fox News that there would be “multiple” criminal referrals and that “it’s not going to end well for the Bidens.”

It’s the start of a potential winding-down for the lengthy GOP-led probe that was launched after Republicans seized control of the House in January, eager to impeach Biden. The House had twice impeached then-President Trump, a Republican, when Democrats held a majority.

As Trump and Biden face an apparent rematch in November, Comer is weighing whether to keep the inquiry going on Hunter Biden’s business dealings and personal issues, or wrap up work even if it falls short of impeachment.

The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said at the hearing that the “comedy of errors” of the impeachment effort was finally “crashing to an end.”

The White House has called the inquiry a “charade,” telling Republicans to “move on.”

Republicans used the hearing to look deeper into Hunter Biden’s dealings. They sought testimony from Jason Galanis, who is in federal prison in Alabama for fraud schemes and appeared remotely; and Tony Bobulinski, a onetime business associate of the younger Biden who made public accusations against the family during the 2020 campaign.

Democrats called Lev Parnas to testify, relying on the convicted businessman who was central to Trump’s first impeachment after working with Rudolph W. Giuliani to dig up dirt on Joe Biden before the 2020 election. Parnas has since played a key role in dispelling the House GOP’s main claim of bribery against the Bidens.

The inquiry’s public hearings have often devolved into all-day spectacles with lawmakers taking turns grilling witnesses.

Hunter Biden, who is facing firearm and tax charges in separate matters, testified behind closed doors last month in a deposition that filled more than 200 pages but left the committee without hard evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden.

The committee claims the Bidens traded on the family name in an alleged influence-peddling scheme, in which Republicans are trying to link a handful of phone calls and dinner or lunch meetings between Joe Biden, when he was vice president, and Hunter Biden and his associates.

But with the GOP’s slim House majority narrowed further by early retirements, Republicans may not have enough support within their ranks to pursue articles of impeachment, especially because Democrats would likely vote against such charges.

Instead, Comer has been looking into potential criminal referrals to the Justice Department, which would likely be symbolic but could open the door to prosecutions under a future administration.

It’s unclear who might be charged and over what offenses. Comer has also discussed drafting ethics legislation to tighten influence peddling or foreign lobbying.

The committee will issue a final report with its recommendations once the inquiry has concluded.

Galanis, initially interviewed by the panel last month from prison, has told lawmakers he expected to make “billions” with Hunter Biden and other associates by using the family’s name in foreign business dealings.

He has told the committee of a time when Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone for a brief chat with potential foreign business partners during a birthday party at a New York restaurant. He acknowledged that he unsuccessfully sought a pardon from Trump before he left office.

Hunter Biden said in his deposition that he’d met with Galanis for about 30 minutes 10 years ago.

Bobulinski has told the panel that he met briefly with Joe Biden when he was vice president, through Hunter Biden.

The Democratic witness, Parnas, was a central figure in Trump’s first impeachment over withholding aid to Ukraine. He had helped Giuliani with false claims that as vice president, Joe Biden intervened in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor to aid Hunter Biden’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm. Western allies also wanted the prosecutor fired over allegations of corruption.

Last summer, Senate Republicans released unverified claims from an FBI informant who made allegations of payments to the Bidens that became central to the House inquiry. At the time, Parnas sent Comer a lengthy letter dispelling those claims, saying that they were all talk and that money was not paid to the Bidens.

The then-informant, Alexander Smirnov, was arrested last month and pleaded not guilty to charges of fabricating the bribery allegations.

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.