Biden impeachment investigation running on fumes as White House demands end to probe
The ongoing Republican impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden appears to be running out of gas with no smoking gun emerging from six months of hearings and closed-door depositions.
The White House ripped off a letter Friday to House Speaker Mike Johnson, asking him to accept that the probe is effectively over with no real evidence of any ties between Biden and shady business deals carried out by Hunter Biden or other presidential relatives.
“It is obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker. This impeachment is over,” White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote. “There is too much important work to be done for the American people to continue wasting time on this charade.”
Johnson, who didn’t immediately respond to the letter, has said he believes there is still an investigation needed into claims about the Bidens.
“There’s more deliberation to be done on it that’s for sure,” Johnson said earlier this week.
Hours of testimony and reams of records turned over to House committees have failed to establish any wrongdoing by the president or anyone else.
Even Republican witnesses have poured cold water on the impeachment effort, which is supposed to be reserved only for presidents accused of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
It comes a month after federal prosecutors charged ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov with lying about the Bidens and undisclosed Russian intelligence contacts. He was one of the GOP’s star witnesses.
Republicans hold only a slim six-vote majority in the House and don’t have enough votes to impeach Biden.
GOP leaders are now considering a Plan B to impeachment that would involve making criminal referrals to the Justice Department of anyone they think might have committed crimes, perhaps including Hunter and Jim Biden, the president’s brother.
Hunter Biden is already facing a criminal case at the hands of Special Counsel David Weiss.
Even as the GOP effort runs out of steam, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer is marching ahead with a planned public hearing next week despite Hunter Biden’s decision to snub the event.
_____
