The Republican-dominated House committees, tasked with investigating the potential impeachment of President Joe Biden, have finally unveiled their much-anticipated report.
The document, released on Monday morning, contends that Biden has engaged in impeachable conduct, but leaves the decision to pursue formal impeachment to the full House.
According to CNBC, the report, spanning nearly 300 pages, is a compilation of the investigation carried out by the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees over the past year and a half. The majority of the information contained within has already been disclosed to the public.
The report alleges that Biden profited from his family's business ventures and concealed his mishandling of classified information during his tenure. This was the focus of the investigation led by special counsel Robert Hur, who earlier this year decided against pressing charges.
Moreover, the committees assert that the Justice Department mishandled its investigation into tax issues concerning Biden's son, Hunter Biden. They also accuse the White House of withholding crucial documents and witnesses from the impeachment investigation.
The report states, "The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious. President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift. In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family."
The White House has yet to comment on the report.
The document provides an in-depth analysis of the interactions and financial transactions between foreign companies and Hunter Biden, as well as the president's brother, James Biden, and their business associates. These interactions occurred towards the end of Biden's vice presidency and during his time as a private citizen.
The investigators estimate the total amount involved to be $27 million, based on the bank records they received. However, they found no evidence that Biden himself received money from these companies or was involved in the foreign business deals, except for instances when Hunter Biden included him in speakerphone conversations with foreign business associates or when he encountered them at his son's birthday dinner.
One case highlighted by the committees involves Russian businesswoman Yelena Baturina, wife of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzkhkov. In 2014, Baturina invested $3.5 million with Hunter Biden's business partner, Devon Archer, through a company with some ties to Hunter Biden. This investment was finalized after Hunter Biden's birthday dinner at Caf Milano in Washington, D.C., which Baturina attended and where Joe Biden, then vice president, made an appearance. Archer described the conversation during the dinner as being about "the world, I guess, and the weather, and then everybody everybody left."
Later that year, when another of Hunter Biden's business partners, Jason Galanis, sought further investment from Baturina that would have benefited Hunter Biden through an equity agreement, Hunter Biden called his father and put him on speakerphone, according to Galanis. He told the Oversight and Judiciary committees that the brief call included some "pleasantries and hellos and safe travels," after which Joe Biden said, "You be good to my boy," before the conversation ended. Although the committees present an email from Galanis indicating that Baturina had committed to making an additional investment, there is no evidence that it ever materialized.
The report also provides numerous examples of financial deals between Hunter Biden and Chinese corporations but fails to establish direct links to Joe Biden during his vice presidency or evidence of specific policies he altered or advocated during that period. It also refers to an instance in 2017 when Sara Biden, James Biden's wife, issued a $40,000 check to Biden labeled as "loan repayment" from an account that had received funds through various transfers originating from Hunter Biden's dealings with a Chinese energy company.
The committees also highlight instances where Hunter Biden's business associates described a future role for Joe Biden in certain business ventures after his vice presidency ended. In his testimony before the Oversight and Judiciary committees, Hunter Biden denied his father's involvement or attributed any references he made to his father to his drug and alcohol use at the time.
In June, the chairmen of the three committees pursuing impeachment sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department recommending that Hunter and James Biden be charged with making false statements to Congress.
The report also addresses the IRS' investigation into Hunter Biden's failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018, which began under the Trump administration and continued under the Biden administration, supervised by special counsel David Weiss. Two IRS employees came forward as whistleblowers, alleging that the Justice Department was intentionally delaying the investigation. Hunter Biden was offered a plea deal on federal firearms charges that fell apart in court last year, and he was later convicted on those charges at a jury trial this year. He is awaiting trial for his failure to pay taxes later this year.
The report does not mention Alexander Smirnov, the alleged Russian spy who provided false information about Hunter and Joe Biden to the FBI. Smirnov, who has also been charged with making false reports about the president's son by Weiss, is scheduled to go on trial in December.
The report concludes, "Although the Committees' fact-finding is ongoing amid President Biden's obstruction, the evidence uncovered in the impeachment inquiry to date already amounts to impeachable conduct. The Committees present this information to the House of Representatives for its evaluation and consideration of appropriate next steps."
The impeachment inquiry was announced in September by Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., then the House speaker, and formally ratified by the House in December in a party-line vote.
Whether Republican leadership has enough votes to impeach Biden remains uncertain. Even if impeachment were to proceed, it would almost certainly fail to meet the two-thirds bar for conviction in the Senate. Senate Democrats, who hold a 51-49 edge, can vote to dismiss an impeachment inquiry with a simple majority.
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