By Morgan Phillips, Congress Reporter On Capitol Hill For Dailymail.Com

Published: 16:42 EDT, 22 March 2024 | Updated: 23:36 EDT, 22 March 2024

Rep. James Comer, who has taken the lead on the Biden impeachment inquiry, hinted that he'll focus on 'criminal referrals' rather than impeaching the president. 

'I want to hold accountability,' the Kentucky Republican said on NewsMax. 'What does real accountability look like? Does it look like impeaching Joe Biden in the House and then the Senate tabling it?'

'Or does it mean providing real criminal referrals to the Department of Justice? I think the ladder,' Comer, chairman of the Oversight Committee, added. 

But Republicans largely admit they aren't close to having the votes even in the House to impeach Biden. 

Rep. James Comer, who has taken the lead on the Biden impeachment inquiry, hinted that he'll focus on 'criminal referrals' rather than impeaching the president

'We want to hold accountability and I believe that the best path to accountability is criminal referrals.'

A criminal referral would largely amount to a symbolic letter suggesting to the Department of Justice suggesting prosecutors probe specific crimes they believe have been committed. 

The impeachment inquiry's path forward is murky after House Republicans hauled in President Biden's brother James and son Hunter, along with Hunter's former associates and thousands of pages of documents and records. 

Comer has invited Joe Biden to testify before the committee, an invitation that will almost surely be declined. 

'No one on the Democratic side of the aisle, no one in the mainstream media is denying the fact that we have proven that the Bidens were influence peddling,' Comer said. 'There's disagreement is as to whether or not Joe Biden knew what was going on. So the only way to find that out is to ask him to come before the hearing.'

It was all the way back in July that Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said the Biden impeachment inquiry was reaching an 'important final stage.' In November, he predicted the Biden family interviews would be wrapped up before the end of the year.  

On Wednesday Republicans brought in former Hunter associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis - who testified about how they had sought to profit off the Biden 'lift.' 

The impeachment inquiry's path forward is murky after House Republicans hauled in President Biden's brother James and son Hunter, along with Hunter's former associates and thousands of pages of documents and records

Next, Comer said he would focus on the tens of thousands of emails Joe Biden sent using a pseudonym while vice president - as well as Hunter's credit card records. 

Last month Comer subpoenaed credit card companies to obtain financial records for Hunter Biden, James Biden, Sara Biden, and their ex-business associates Eric Schwerin, Gongwen Dong, and Mervyn Yan. 

He's also subpoenaed 13 years of Hunter's phone records from AT&T.  

'When we get the rest of the information, the credit card information that we've subpoenaed, when we get the rest of the emails, the pseudonym emails, then I think we'll be able to take steps to issue a report,' Comer told reporters on Wednesday. 

And last week - six months into the impeachment inquiry - Speaker Mike Johnson admitted has not had time to 'do a deep dive into the evidence' to determine if Republicans should vote to impeach the president, a suggestion that the prospect is not a top priority. 

'To be very frank with you, very honest and transparent, because I've been so busy with all my other responsibilities, I have not been able to take the time to do the deep dive in the evidence,' he disclosed. 

'Yet what has been uncovered has been alarming,' the speaker added.