The United States House of Representatives formalized this Wednesday, at the initiative of the Republican majority, the impeachment investigation against the president, Joe Biden, for alleged influence peddling.
The Republicans never hid their intention to impeach Biden once they took control of the House of Representatives, something that happened last January, after their victory in the November 2022 midterm elections. The investigations against Biden They started shortly after, but the lack of shocking findings and a certain skepticism from their more moderate congressmen meant that the Republican leadership moved cautiously when making decisions. In September, the then president of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, unilaterally ordered three legislative committees, also controlled by Republicans, to be in charge of the investigations.
Republicans accuse Biden of influence peddling for allegedly intervening on behalf of his son Hunter, as well as other family members and close associates, in foreign businesses taking advantage of his political connections. In fact, it was Donald Trump himself who put Hunter Biden in the spotlight when he asked the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate him in 2019 in exchange for receiving US financial aid. That call was in turn the origin of an impeachment trial against Trump. According to the now president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, in these two long months of investigations the committees have concluded that the Biden family received more than 15 million dollars from foreign companies and governments from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania and China between 2014 and 2019. His partners would have received another 9 million. They also claim that Biden would have met with his son’s foreign associates on at least 22 occasions.
Republicans hope that this Wednesday’s vote will give more legitimacy to their investigation, given that it now has the support of the House of Representatives, a step that should facilitate their access to information, documents and testimonies. Also to strengthen its position in the face of possible litigation before the Justice, such as the one that could lead Hunter Biden to be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. Biden’s son was called to testify behind closed doors this Wednesday before one of the committees, but he has failed to comply with the subpoena, alleging that he wants his testimony to be public.
The Republicans had so far avoided putting the impeachment trial to a vote in the plenary session of the House of Representatives since with their weak majority (221-213) they need almost all of their members to support it. Several of the conservative congressmen have a moderate profile and were elected in districts where Biden won the presidential elections, so they could prefer not to have to make that decision that would cost them votes and their position. But the fact that the Republican leadership felt comfortable putting impeachment to a vote meant that the conservative caucus is united in its attempt to impeach Biden.
If in the coming months the impeachment investigation that the Republicans have just formalized bears any fruit, the committees will have to draft an accusation, what is known as “articles of impeachment”, which will have to be submitted to a vote again in the Lower House. . If these articles are approved with only a simple majority, the Senate – where Democrats have a majority – must hold an impeachment trial against the president. Biden would only be removed from office if two-thirds of that chamber votes in that direction, a scenario impossible to imagine in the current political context.
What there is no doubt is that less than a year before the 2024 presidential elections, an impeachment investigation against Biden will serve as a media electoral weapon for the Republicans.
