In an effort by Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives to completely isolate President Joe Biden, similar to what transpired years ago with their former president, Donald Trump, over a corruption case linked to his son Hunter, which emerged eight months ago, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, issued subpoenas on Friday to obtain personal and business banking records of his son Hunter.
Comer also requested the banking records of President Biden's brother, James Biden, and Hunter's associate, Eric Schwerin.
Yesterday, the committee launched its first sessions to hear and review the evidence collected by the Republicans so far about the foreign business ventures undertaken by Hunter.
"Benefited and lied"
Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused the Democratic president of lying about his knowledge of his son's business dealings, which Republicans claim Joe Biden benefited from in a manner involving corruption when he was vice president under Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017.
He stated, when announcing the investigation under pressure from the far-right wing within his party to target the president, "House Republicans have brought to light serious and credible allegations related to Biden's conduct."
No evidence
On the other hand, the Biden administration downplayed the significance of these allegations, considering them mere "tactics," with no evidence of any wrongdoing.
Democrats and several independent witnesses also stated that there is no evidence that Biden received any payments or engaged in improper behavior during his tenure as vice president under Obama between 2009 and 2017.
Furthermore, Jamie Raskin, the senior Democratic member of the committee, remarked, "If Republicans had substantial or even weak evidence, they would have presented it... but they have nothing."
"Trump wants it"
Similarly, Dan Goldman, the Democratic Congressman and lead lawyer in the first impeachment proceedings against former Republican President Donald Trump, stated, "Their problem is that the evidence they have does not support their accusations."
He questioned in recent statements before Congress, "Why waste the next few months on a fake and superficial impeachment? Is it because Trump wants it and has called on them and encouraged them to do it, given that he has been impeached twice?"
Others have pointed out that the goal behind this issue is simply to launch an open-ended investigation that will continue through the next election year, potentially harming Biden's chances of winning, as impeachment is unlikely to garner sufficient support in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold an extremely slim majority.
Betrayal or bribery
It is worth noting that the U.S. Constitution states that Congress can remove the president in cases of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."
Impeachment in the House of Representatives (which is the political equivalent of filing criminal charges) leads to a "trial" in the Senate, where the president loses his office if convicted.
What are the allegations?
The investigation has so far included requests for financial records spanning over 12,000 pages from members of the Biden family and hours of testimony from Hunter's business associates and federal investigators.
Among the allegations Republicans are discussing is that Biden received bribes from the Ukrainian company "Burisma," of which Hunter was a board member.
However, this charge is based on a report from an anonymous source that was investigated during the Trump administration and subsequently dropped.
Additionally, the allegations are also connected to another theory debunked by several federal officials, claiming that Biden pressured, while vice president, for the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in the interest of "Burisma."
In reality, the United States and the European Union at the time believed that Shokin was obstructing anti-corruption efforts in the former Soviet state, warranting his dismissal.
Republicans also claimed that Biden interfered in a criminal investigation into several charges against Hunter, but the charge lacks tangible evidence, as the president's son faced firearm-related charges from a prosecutor appointed by Trump, and Biden allowed him to continue the investigation when he assumed office.
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