Congressional Republicans have accused Joe Biden of “outrageous” conduct that should see him impeached — despite presenting no evidence the US president committed a crime — in a 291-page report whose impact has been significantly blunted by his withdrawal from the presidential race.
In what should have been a central theme in the Republican Party’s efforts to thwart Biden’s re-election campaign, the report alleges that he was the architect and beneficiary of a lucrative influence scheme carried out by his son Hunter and brother James.
The report is the culmination of a months-long impeachment inquiry conducted by three Republican-led House committees — the Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees — and was scheduled to coincide with the opening of the Democratic national convention in Chicago, but now Vice President Kamala Harris, not Biden, is at the top of the list.
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“Overwhelming evidence shows that President Biden participated in a conspiracy to leverage his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the report said. “President Biden’s participation in this conspiracy to enrich his family constitutes impeachable conduct.”
It added: “The totality of the corrupt conduct exposed by the committees is outrageous. President Joe Biden conspired to peddle influence and commit fraud. In doing so, he abused his office, and by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, he defrauded the United States to enrich his family.”
However, the report found no evidence that Biden committed a crime and did not appear to meet the constitutional definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors” required to impeach a sitting president.
The document’s authors implicitly acknowledge these shortcomings, but justify them by pointing to the grounds on which Democrats impeached Donald Trump in 2019, after the then-president — and current Republican nominee — was accused of pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to seek incriminating evidence on the Biden family in exchange for military aid.
“There may also be abuses of power even if, as some have alleged, the Biden family was merely selling the ‘illusion’ of influence and access,” the report said.
“In 2019, House Democrats argued that impeachment offenses do not necessarily involve criminal conduct. The House can therefore impeach President Biden for noncriminal conduct that significantly harms the political system or betrays the public trust.”
The inquiry’s leaders must now decide whether to put the issue to a vote, knowing that Biden has become a “lame duck” president and that they may not have enough votes to win given the lower political stakes.
Biden resigned as the Democratic presidential nominee on July 21 after a poor debate performance undermined his party’s confidence in his ability to win the election, leaving his impeachment with little political value.
Meanwhile, some Republican members of Congress are hesitating to continue their campaign as they try to preserve their party’s narrow majority in the House of Representatives, privately admitting that the evidence against Biden is thin.
The investigation was launched under pressure from GOP hardliners last September by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was subsequently ousted by an internal Republican revolt and has since resigned from Congress. It was supported by McCarthy’s successor as chairman, Mike Johnson.
Even if Biden were to be impeached in a House vote, it would be unlikely to result in his removal from office, which requires a two-thirds vote in favor after a Senate trial. Democrats currently hold the Senate majority with a one-third majority.
