Photo: Alamy
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., laid out his reasoning on Tuesday for why he will push forward on an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.
In an op-ed written by the Speaker and published in USA Today, Johnson wrote that the House would vote this week on whether to formalize their impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Biden has amassed a slew of corruption-based accusations by House Republicans, including allegedly meeting business associates of his son, Hunter Biden, reportedly accepting bribes during his time as vice president, and his family members and their affiliate companies supposedly accepting more than $15 million from foreign nationals, per the Speaker.
Johnson confirmed that the Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees will continue to investigate Joe Biden’s “alleged influence-peddling schemes,” which, if true, could have raked in millions of dollars for his family in payments from foreign entities.
Biden has repeatedly denied involvement in his son’s foreign business dealings, claiming for years that the two have “never spoken” about these supposed deals.
However, Johnson wrote that committees will investigate these potentially false words, including the supposed role that this administration “might have played in covering up alleged wrongdoing.”
“The White House has withheld thousands of pages of documents and emails from the National Archives, where then-Vice President Joe Biden was communicating under pseudonyms clearly designed to avoid public scrutiny,” wrote Johnson.
“What is the president hiding?” he asked.
Johnson also noted that despite the Democrats’ 2019 “premeditated” impeachment of President Trump, which compiled “the thinnest evidentiary record” and also “cheapened” the purpose of impeachment, House Republicans would not “prejudge” the investigations.
“We will not prejudge this investigation; we will depose witnesses, gather evidence, establish a thorough record and present Articles of Impeachment only if the evidentiary record dictates such action,” said Johnson.
He further added that the House “will likely need to go to court” to enforce subpoenas in order to be in the “strongest legal position” to “provide transparency” to Americans.
“The American people have a right to know whether the president—through his family—traded official acts for foreign dollars, whether the president is compromised and whether Joe Biden abused his power as president to impede or obstruct the investigation into Hunter Biden,” the Speaker concluded.
“As we have done all along, House Republicans will continue to follow the facts where they lead,” said Johnson.
