The Republican-led House unveiled findings from its yearlong impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Monday, concluding that the president’s family and business associates raked in more than $27 million through foreign business deals in recent years.
In a 291-page report, a trio of House committees found that Biden committed impeachable offenses, including abuse of power, by mingling with his son Hunter’s and brother James’s foreign business partners while he was vice president.
The House Oversight, Ways and Means, and Judiciary committees, which have led the inquiry, said that after more than two dozen interviews, six hearings, and a review of millions of pages of documents, they found that the Biden family participated in a “global influence peddling racket” with Biden’s “full knowledge and cooperation.”
Read the full report below:
The report is largely a compilation of details the committees have released periodically over the past year in an attempt to translate to the public the elaborate web of the Biden family's business ventures, primarily involving Hunter Biden and Ukrainian, Chinese, and Romanian entities. It serves as the most thorough account yet of financial transactions that add up to the $27 million figure that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has mentioned in recent months.
The committees stopped short of recommending to the House, which Republicans control by a narrow margin, to move forward with a vote to impeach Joe Biden, however.
Instead, they said their impeachment inquiry would continue and that the decision to move forward with a vote “must not be made lightly.”
“As such, this report endeavors to present the evidence gathered to date so that all Members of the House may assess the extent of President Biden’s corruption,” the committees wrote.
The long-anticipated report comes one month after Biden dropped his bid for reelection, resulting in some of its most critical details losing their luster as the president's political relevance fades.
In perhaps their most damning accusation, the committees highlighted Hunter Biden's position on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma beginning in 2014, when Joe Biden was vice president and oversaw U.S. foreign policy. Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine have long been a source of controversy. Bank records show that the first son made $1 million per year as a board member, but his salary was cut two months after his father left the vice presidency.
"The Committees have developed a significant body of evidence to suggest the Biden family used Joe Biden’s position as Vice President to produce a positive outcome for Burisma," the committees said, noting Burisma was "implicated in a years-long corruption investigation" at the time.
They alleged that Joe Biden leveraged a $1 million loan from the United States to Ukraine to force prosecutor Viktor Shokin's firing because, according to the committees, Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption. His firing would directly benefit Hunter Biden, the committees said.
State Department officials who were involved with U.S. anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine have said that forcing Shokin out was a lengthy "multi-stakeholder" process and that it was implausible for Joe Biden to make such a move unilaterally, especially for the benefit of a single company.
The committees detailed how Joe Biden also sought to boost Hunter Biden's reputation with Burisma, including by attending a dinner with his son, Hunter Biden's business partner Devon Archer, and Burisma's corporate secretary at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C., in 2015.
In an email, the corporate secretary thanked Hunter Biden for the “opportunity to meet your father and spen[d] some time together."
After Biden gave a speech in 2015 that was favorable for Burisma, Hunter Biden told Archer of the speech, “You should send to [the corporate secretary]- makes it look like we are adding value.”
The remark epitomized the committees' broader allegation that Hunter Biden, a recovering drug addict who was grappling with crack cocaine and alcohol abuse during his most profitable years, did not do much for his business partners besides provide a connection to his powerful father.
"Not one of these transactions would have occurred, but for Joe Biden’s official position in the United States government," the committees wrote. "This pattern of conduct ensured his family — who provided no legitimate services — lived a lavish lifestyle."
Hunter Biden's attorney has argued he was a capable businessman with a Yale Law School degree and experience in the Navy whose work abroad was aboveboard.
Biden, for his part, has repeatedly denied abusing his political power to enrich his family. However, his denials have evolved as evidence of his communications with his son and his son's business partners has come to light during the impeachment inquiry.
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The president went from saying he "never discussed" business with his family members in 2019 to saying he was "not in business" with his son in 2023.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House and Oversight Committee Democrats for comment on the report.
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