Reasons for Biden’s impeachment inquiry explained in six words: ‘Public office is not for sale’

After weeks of explosive revelations and contentious debate, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy crossed a political threshold of no return and set high stakes for both Congress and the Biden White House ahead of a tumultuous year ahead. of the presidential elections.

The first-term leader of the House on Tuesday authorized an official impeachment inquiry against the 46th president of the United States. He did so without having to hold a formal vote in the House, in part because his predecessor Nancy Pelosi changed the tradition during the Donald Trump era.

But as the ramifications of the decision settled in and both sides girded for battle, McCarthy sent a letter to his colleagues explaining the rationale for this investigation at this time, summarizing it in six concise words: “Public offices are not for sale,” McCarthy declared.

His “Dear Colleagues” letter Tuesday evening told a simple story of a politically connected family that was enriched during the Obama years by millions of dollars from foreign oligarchs interested in Vice President Joe Biden’s policy decisions .

While Hunter Biden and his partners defended the deals, his father used his government position to facilitate the operation by meeting, dining and calling with clients, McCarthy explained.

In essence, the father-son duo were a two-for-the-price-of-one pressure “brand,” as former business partner Devon Archer explained in his blistering testimony earlier this summer.

And while the alleged influence-peddling operation began under former President Barack Obama, the misconduct extended into the Biden presidency in the form of false statements, deception, obstruction of federal investigators, and a plea deal which McCarthy argued amounted to a cover-up.

“Simply put, the American people deserve to know that public office is not for sale and that the federal government is not being used to cover up the actions of a politically connected family,” McCarthy wrote.

You can read the entire letter here.

Amid partisan howls and recriminations from Democrats in Congress and the White House, McCarthy scheduled a meeting of the House GOP caucus for Thursday where he planned to lay out five reasons for the investigation to his colleagues:

• Biden publicly made false statements to Americans in the run-up to his election and since taking office, including denying that his family received money from Communist China when in fact he got millions.
• The president facilitated his family’s enrichment as Barack Obama’s vice president by joining phone calls and meetings with his son Hunter’s business associates. “Witness testimony revealed that the president joined several phone calls and had several interactions with his son’s business associates,” he wrote.
• Biden presided over a family that collected nearly $20 million in foreign income, some from oligarchs of concern to the US, and had more than 150 bank transactions flagged as suspicious.
• The FBI received information in 2020, yet to be confirmed or denied, that Biden was the beneficiary of a $10 million bribe from a Ukrainian company called Burisma Holdings that was under investigation for corruption and had hired his son . The indictment is concerned that there was also evidence that Biden “used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partner regarding Hunter’s role in Burisma” during a time when the former vice president retained a $1 billion US loan guarantee to force the firing of the investigating Ukrainian prosecutor. Burisma
• Since becoming president, his administration has taken actions to thwart or minimize the potential investigation and prosecution of Hunter Biden on criminal charges, including a “sweetheart plea deal that President Biden’s Justice Department tried to keep from the public ” this summer before a judge threw it out. .

McCarthy emphasized that an investigation is not a formal complaint but rather a mechanism to determine in the future whether articles of impeachment for felonies and misdemeanors are warranted.

“These allegations should concern all Americans, regardless of political party,” McCarthy’s letter stated. “Together, they paint a picture of a culture of corruption, obstruction and abuse of power that rises to the level of formal investigation.

“House Republicans are committed to getting answers and finding the truth, nothing less. We will go where the evidence leads us,” he added.

The stick-to-the-facts approach won some immediate converts, including freshman Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who had pushed for impeachment for some time.

“It’s not about recovery. It’s about justice. And that’s what we have to pursue,” Ogles told the”Just news, no noise“Tuesday Night TV Show.

The letter praised three House committee chairs — Rep. James Comer of the Oversight Committee, Jim Jordan of the Judiciary Committee, and Jason Smith of the Ways and Means Committee — for presenting significant evidence to warrant an investigation, including two whistleblowers. of the IRS and earlier. Devon Archer, business partner of Hunter Biden.

“Under his leadership, especially over the past five weeks, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations about President Biden’s conduct, beginning as vice president,” the spokesman wrote.