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Democrats discredit 'sham' Joe Biden impeachment report as a way to distract from Kamala Harris' growing momentum with less than three months to Election Day
Democrats are tearing into the 'sham' Republican-led impeachment report, saying its a futile effort to try and distract Americans from Kamala Harris' growing momentum with just 77 days before the election.
House Republicans released a sprawling new report Monday that they claim proves President Joe Biden, 81, committed 'impeachable offenses.'
The nearly 300-page report compiled Republican findings over the last two years about the Biden family allegedly profiting off Hunter and James Biden's shady business deals by over $27 million through 'influence peddling.'
It also details claims that the Justice Department slow-walked federal probes into Hunter for gun and tax crimes.
Now, Democrats are criticizing the timing of the report, released just hours before Biden is set to address the Democratic National Convention and pump up his successor Vice President Kamala Harris.
With just 77 days before the election, House Republicans released a sprawling new report that they claim proves President Joe Biden committed 'impeachable offenses'
Former Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., staffer Jimmy Williams called it a 'sham' report published on Day One of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
'THIS is how you idiots think you’re going to steal Harris’ thunder? Soooooo JV. Lame can’t even describe this move,' he wrote on X.
'For 20 months, Republicans have been conducting an investigation that was motivated by Donald Trump’s rage about being held accountable for his demonstrable constitutional crimes in office and his desire for matching political retribution against his successor,' said top Oversight Democrat Jamie Raskin, Md.
'Every lie, distortion and dirty trick thrown at Joe Biden in the 118th Congress has sharply boomeranged and imploded, making our Republican colleagues look inept and absurd. Their compulsive flailing about has not only proven, once more, that President Biden committed no wrongdoing.'
'After wasting nearly two years and millions of taxpayer dollars, House Republicans have finally given up on their wild goose chase,' said White House spokesperson Sharon Yang. 'This failed stunt will only be remembered for how it became an embarrassment that their own members distanced themselves from as they only managed to turn up evidence that refuted their false and baseless conspiracy theories.'
Impeachment leaders are presenting the report to the full House, and GOP leadership will have to decide whether or not to put an impeachment vote on the House floor.
Speaker Mike Johnson praised the report - while not revealing whether he'd put impeachment up for a vote.
'House Republicans commend the thorough, diligent, and thoughtful work of the Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees. We encourage all Americans to read this report, which details the extent of President Biden’s corrupt practices and the extent to which the Biden-Harris Administration and the Democratic Party have attempted to conceal these facts from the American people,' he said in a statement.
'Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family,' reads the report obtained by DailyMail.com.
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy first announced the impeachment inquiry nearly a year ago in September 2023 giving the reigns to the Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees. The House voted to formally authorize it in December and in the months that followed there was a constant trickle of new findings about the Biden family business deals.
Still, it's not believed that the narrow Republican majority has enough votes to impeach the president. Impeaching Biden could be even less of a priority after he dropped out of the running for 2024.
The House already voted to refer Hunter and James Biden to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. Oversight Chairman James Comer told DailyMail.com he believes the DOJ would take up those referrals if Donald Trump wins the election.
DailyMail.com breaks down highlights of the report as House members will decide whether or not they would support a vote to impeach the president:
Joe was repaid after James closed business deals
The report highlights some $27 million that Biden family members and their companies took from foreign entities and traces the shell companies they say were set up to evade scrutiny.
'The Biden family used proceeds from these business activities to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Joe Biden—including thousands of dollars that are directly traceable to China.'
James Biden wrote two checks to his brother Joe, one for $200,000 and one for $40,000, both of which were marked 'loan repayment.'
James admitted during testimony that he used money made in a deal with Chinese energy firm CEFC to pay back his brother for the smaller sum.
He stated there were no proper loan documents attached to the two checks and he did not charge interest on the money because it was between 'family.'
Republicans release new report on Joe Biden's 'impeachable offenses'
Joe had come into money from a book deal after the vice presidency and James and his wife had bills they needed to pay, according to James.
Bank records seen by DailyMail.com indicate wires from Joe to James weeks before the repayments were made.
Biden's involvement in family business deals
The report also claimed Joe 'used his status as Vice President to garner favorable outcomes for his son's and his business partners' foreign business dealings.'
Hunter associate Devon Archer told lawmakers that Joe sat and had dinner in-person on at least two occasions with Hunter and his foreign business partners, who then wired money almost immediately after to Biden-affiliated companies.
In the spring of 2014, Joe joined Hunter and a handful of his business partners for dinner at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C. Those at the dinner included Kazakh businessmen Kenes Rakishev and Karim Massimov and Russian oligarchYelena Baturina and Eric Schwerin.
Archer confirmed that Joe was present long enough to eat dinner with the group.
Around the time of the dinner, $3.5 million was wired from Baturina into Rosemont Seneca Thornton on February 14.
Months later, as Hunter was trying to close another deal with Baturina, Joe said hello to her on a call and allegedly added, 'you be good to my boy.'
'Based on the totality of this evidence, it is inconceivable that President Biden did not understand that he was taking part in an effort to enrich his family by abusing his office of public trust,' the report read.
On April 22, $142,300 was wired into the Rosemont Seneca Bohai account from Kenes Rakishev, a businessman from Kazakhstan, who was also at the Cafe Milano dinner.
The payment was made as a gift to Hunter, who used it to buy a Porsche.
Hunter, meanwhile, had a $50,000-a-month board seat at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma as his father pressured the nation to fire a prosecutor probing the company.
During another dinner with Burisma executives at the Four Seasons in Dubai, Hunter said he would be able to get 'help from D.C.' in order to relieve some 'government pressure' on the company.
Archer testified that Burisma was 'getting pressure' and as a result, they 'requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure.'
He said it was 'government pressure' from the ongoing Ukrainian investigation into the company at the time - led by top prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
In March 2016, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine if Shokin was not fired for corruption, which he eventually was.
The report also highlights Hunter's now-infamous WhatsApp message with Chinese energy company CEFC official Raymond Zhao.
Zhao and Hunter were negotiating a deal on a joint venture on a $300 billion financial services company closely tied to the CCP. When the deal did not materialize, Hunter resorted to threats.
At one point Hunter messaged the Chinese associate: 'I'm sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment has not been fulfilled.'
Shortly after $5 million flowed from CEFC affiliates to companies connected to Hunter and James Biden.
But Hunter claimed he sent that message to the wrong 'Zhao.'
'The Zhao that this is sent to is not the Zhao connected to CEFC,' Hunter claimed. He 'had no understanding or even remotely knew what the hell I was even Goddamn talking about.'
Phone records of Hunter Biden's WhatsApp account show that he only ever communicated with one Zhao - Raymond Zhao - and he continued to send messages with that same 'Zhao' about CEFC matters for months afterward.
'Biden's participation in this conspiracy to enrich his family constitutes impeachable conduct. By monetizing the Vice Presidency for his family's benefit, he abused his office of public trust, placing the welfare of his family ahead of the welfare of the United States,' the report reads.
'He also put foreign interests ahead of the interests of the American people. Indeed, precedent set by House Democrats in 2019 in their impeachment of President Donald J. Trump establishes that 'abuse of office,' defined as the exercise of 'official power to obtain an improper personal benefit, while ignoring or injuring the national interest,' is an impeachable offense.'
A new court filing this week in Hunter's federal tax case revealed the younger Biden was hired by a Romanian oligarch in an 'attempt to influence U.S. government agencies,' earning around $1 million for work that was structured to avoid 'political ramifications' for Joe Biden, who was then vice president.
It marks the closest prosecutors have come to tying President Biden to his son's overseas business deals.
Gabriel Popoviciu, a real estate tycoon, was facing bribery and corruption charges in his home country. In an attempt to avoid the charges, Popoviciu hired Hunter Biden and his business associates in late 2015 to help his case.
Joe Biden's alleged mishandling of classified information
The report also gets into Biden's alleged misplacement of classified documents and how he shared them with ghost writer Mark Zwonitzer.
Special counsel Robert Hur ultimately decided not to charge him for because he deemed him 'elderly' and 'forgetful.'
'The Special Counsel's report, as well as the Committees' inquiry, disclosed how President Biden caused White House employees to conceal his conduct and mislead the American people about his actions,' it reads.
Claims DOJ 'slow walked' Hunter probe
Former IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler have alleged the DOJ dragged its feet in the probe into the president's son's taxes and Ziegler said Hunter 'received preferential treatment.'
The report found that the DOJ had allowed the statute of limitations to run on two serious charges facing Hunter Biden, including failing to pay taxes on $1 million in income from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma in 2014 and 2015.
The DOJ also tipped off the Biden transition team about the FBI's plans to interview Hunter, the whistleblowers had said.
In December 2023 the DOJ indicted Hunter on nine tax charges. In June of this year he was found guilty of three felonies for lying on a form about a gun purchase.
'The special treatment for Hunter Biden, which only ceased at the onset of congressional attention on the Department's investigation, may be a basis for impeachment, as the distortion of an official investigation was a basis in the prospective impeachment of President Nixon in 1974.'
Obstruction of Congress
Republicans charge that during their investigation, the administration 'failed to fully cooperate.'
They say they hid certain 'key fact witnesses' and 'disregarded' subpoenas from the Committees.
'The Biden-Harris White House has obfuscated facts and denied the Committees access to witnesses,' the Republicans accuse in the report.
''[W]here the President illegally seeks to obstruct such an inquiry, the House is free to infer that evidence blocked from its view is harmful to the President’s position.”
'Applying the precedent here, the House is free to conclude that the witnesses and information currently withheld from the Committees are adverse to the President.'
The report's main conclusion
'The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious. President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift. In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeated lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family. Not one of these transactions would have occurred, but for Joe Biden's official position in the United States government. This pattern of conduct ensured his family—who provided no legitimate services—lived a lavish lifestyle.'
'The Constitution's remedy for a President's flagrant abuse of office is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate. Despite the cheapening of the impeachment power by Democrats in recent years, the House's decision to pursue articles of impeachment 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 report will now circulate among the full House. Impeachment leaders have tossed the decision to GOP leadership on whether or not to hold a vote to impeach Biden before the election.