'Must be held accountable'
WASHINGTON — Some Republicans on Monday demanded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy begin the process to impeach President Biden after The Post revealed a key witness saying first son Hunter Biden frequently put his father on the phone with foreign business associates.
One of Hunter Biden’s closest partners, Devon Archer, is expected to describe the alleged damning calls involving the president at an upcoming hearing of the House Oversight Committee, The Post reported Sunday.
Archer’s explosive anticipated testimony comes on the heels of last week’s release of an FBI informant file that said Hunter and then-Vice President Joe Biden coerced a Ukrainian oligarch to pay $10 million in bribes to dodge a corruption probe.
“House Republicans should initiate impeachment proceedings against President Biden,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) flatly told The Post on Monday.
“Joe Biden was trading his personal influence to enrich himself and his family and must be held accountable for selling out America,” said Banks, former chairman of the powerful Republican Study Committee.
A source close to McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, “Kevin will never go all in on a [former House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi-style sham impeachment.
“But the evidence is piling up, and he’s getting more bullish on a Biden impeachment,” the source said.
The Post revealed Hunter Biden allegedly put his father on the phone with foreign business associates. WireImage/Kris Connor
“As soon as there’s clear and convincing evidence directly tying Biden to Hunter’s shenanigans, the moderates will jump on board.
“We’ve been talking to them. Not looking good for Sleepy Joe,” the source said.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) tweeted in reaction to Archer’s looming testimony, “Joe Biden committed crimes in plain sight.
“Yet the [Biden Department of Justice] is covering up for his corruption. It’s time for impeachment.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that the president stood by his blanket assertion that he “never” discussed international business dealings with his son — although the rep did not dispute the claim that Joe Biden was on speaker phone with his son’s foreign associates.
“I’ve been asked this question a million times. The answer is not going to change,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at a general press briefing. “The answer remains the same. The president was never in business with his son. I just don’t have anything else to add.”
Archer’s planned testimony fleshes out already significant evidence of Joe Biden’s role in Hunter’s dealings.
A source with the Oversight Committee said Archer is set to sit for a transcribed interview Monday, July 31.
There is evidence that Joe Biden met in person with Hunter’s associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine — in addition to meeting with his American partners — and that Hunter complained in records on his abandoned laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to his dad.
Hunter also rode aboard Air Force Two on official trips to China in 2013 as he set up a state-backed investment fund called BHR Partners, whose incoming CEO Jonathan Li met VP Biden in Beijing.
Hunter also flew the taxpayer-funded jet to Mexico in 2016 with an associate as he courted that nation’s business elite, whom his father had hosted the preceding year at the official vice president’s residence in Washington.
Archer intends to say he was present for about two dozen calls in which Hunter put his dad on speaker phone with his foreign associates — including about a half-dozen instances in which Joe was specifically introduced to others, The Post said.
In an alleged Dec. 4, 2015, call, Hunter phoned his father from Dubai after Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and executive Vadym Pozharskyi asked him to get his dad to show support for the firm when he visited Kyiv three days later, according to Archer.
Devon Archer is expected to describe the alleged damning calls involving the president at an upcoming hearing of the House Oversight Committee. Alec Tabak
It’s unclear if Archer, who met with VP Biden as he joined Burisma’s board in early 2014 alongside Hunter, will provide additional context about the $10 million bribery allegation — in which Joe Biden allegedly got paid to force out Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
“We’ve known that President Biden lied about not discussing Hunter’s overseas business dealings. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me to learn he was far more involved,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told The Post. “I hope House investigators will ask Devon Archer what he discussed with then-VP Biden in the White House on April 16, 2014, five days before Biden traveled to Ukraine and six days before Archer joined the Board of Burisma. The dates of these events are not coincidences.”
The president has sought to laugh off the bribery allegation, telling The Post last month, “Where’s the money?” — but the Oversight Committee is investigating the claim, as well as references on Hunter’s laptop to Burisma opening a Maltese bank account in 2016.
Two IRS agents testified last week to the House Oversight Committee that Joe Biden blocked tax fraud charges against his son and that prosecutors in Delaware thwarted standard investigative steps and prevented agents from analyzing the president’s role in international income.
The latter incident occurred even though a threatening July 2017 text message from Hunter to a Chinese government-linked business allegedly directly implicated Joe Biden, preceding the transfer of roughly $5 million to Hunter Biden-linked bank accounts.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said Monday on “Fox & Friends” that the threatening message “shows that, in fact, President Biden did not just know about his son’s business dealings, he then reverted in saying that he is not involved in his son’s business dealings.”
“Joe Biden was trading his personal influence to enrich himself and his family and must be held accountable for selling out America,” said Rep. Jim Banks, former chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Teresa Kroeger
Hunter, 53, agreed last month to a probation-only plea deal involving two tax-crime misdemeanors and a gun possession felony that will be expunged after two years.
The IRS agents say he evaded about $2.2 million in taxable income on a total of $8.3 million in income.
A judge still must approve the plea deal. The first son is scheduled to have his first court date Wednesday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland may also be the subject of an impeachment proceeding after the IRS agents contradicted his testimony that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss had the power to charge Hunter even outside his own district.
“This is a question for the full conference, but I will tell you this … Speaker McCarthy said if we have to go to an impeachment inquiry, we will in fact do that,” Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” regarding Garland’s fate. “It sure looks [possible] now, based on all this evidence that keeps piling up.
“One thing I do know is if you head down this road, it completely consumes Congress,” Jordan noted. “I was, as you know, on the other side of this when the Democrats did their ridiculous impeachment of President Trump four years ago.”
Some Republicans on Monday demanded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy begin the process to impeach President Biden. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Impeachments usually are highly partisan, meaning House Republicans, who hold a slim 10-seat margin in their chamber, would have to be nearly unanimously in favor of bringing the sensational proceeding about.
Such a House impeachment probe likely would be divvied up between various committees including the Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means panels.
Actual articles of impeachment would be passed onto the House floor by the Judiciary Committee for a vote — but the Oversight panel has done much of the investigation of the Biden family’s dealings, and the Ways and Means Committee has special powers to release tax records, making it a likely multi-committee effort.
The Senate has never convicted and removed from office a president after receiving articles of impeachment from the House. The Democratic-held Senate likely would acquit Biden — but only after a trial at which substantial evidence and witness testimony would be presented.
But there has been a steady escalation in calls for President Biden’s impeachment.
A Chinese government-linked business allegedly directly implicated Joe Biden, preceding the transfer of roughly $5 million to Hunter Biden-linked bank accounts. Getty Images/Spencer Platt
Oversight Committee member Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) tweeted Thursday after the IRS agents’ testimony, “Biden NEEDS to be impeached.
“He is compromised and his son is selling access to him,” Luna wrote.
Other leading Republicans have stopped short of demanding the start of an impeachment inquiry as House committees continue their investigations.
No. 4 House Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York told The Post, “House Republicans will leave no stone unturned as we continue our rigorous investigations of Joe Biden and hold him accountable” — without specifically using the word impeachment.
“With each passing day our investigations into the Biden family’s influence peddling scheme uncovers more and more damning evidence proving that Joe Biden not only knew about his family’s foreign business deals but was illegally involved in them,” Stefanik said.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) added, “The sitting President of the United States and his family have been credibly accused by numerous whistleblowers … of taking bribes in exchange for influencing policy and even to interfere in criminal investigations.
“Now, another whistleblower, Devon Archer, will directly tie Joe to the bribery scheme in Ukraine that ended with a prosecutor being fired for looking into Hunter and Burisma’s corruption.
“We look forward to the predictable pattern of the truth coming out while those in the media ignore the seriousness of the allegations, further proving why Americans should have little trust in them,” Mace said.
Biden, 80, is seeking a second four-year term in next year’s election and has bristled at questions about his involvement in Hunter’s international dealings, including the fact that he was implicated the threatening text message and referred to in the June 2020 FBI informant file regarding Ukraine as the “big guy.”
That moniker also was used to describe a proposed 10% cut for Joe Biden as part of the later Chinese-government linked partnership with CEFC China Energy.
Meanwhile, Archer was sentenced to one year in prison last year for defrauding a Native American tribe.
Only three presidents have been impeached in US history — most recently, former President Donald Trump. He was impeached in 2019 for allegedly pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and in 2021 for reportedly inciting the Capitol riot that disrupted certification of the 2020 election.
The White House did not respond to a Post request for comment Monday.
Source: New York Post
