Republicans advance Biden impeachment probe dismissed as ‘stunt’

WASHINGTON: US Republicans began impeachment inquiry hearings into Joe Biden on Thursday, escalating an eight-month corruption investigation that has failed to uncover evidence of wrongdoing by the president.

The party says the information it has amassed warrants streamlining its multiple probes into an official inquiry empowered to unleash investigators from three House committees to subpoena Biden´s bank records.

Republicans have accused Biden of trading on the power of his office when he was vice president to help his son Hunter Biden secure lucrative foreign business deals, and of benefiting personally from the “corruption.”

“Since assuming our Republican majority in January, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has uncovered a mountain of evidence, revealing how Joe Biden abused his public office for his family´s financial gain,” said James Comer, one of three senior Republican congressmen spearheading the probe.

“For years, President Biden has lied to the American people about his knowledge of and participation in his family´s corrupt business schemes.”

Democrats have dismissed the effort as a “stunt,” accusing Republicans of trying to distract voters, days ahead of a looming government shutdown sparked by far-right lawmakers.

“They cannot get out of bed to fund the government, but they stay up day and night in rabid pursuit of their partisan fever dreams,” said Gerry Connolly, a senior Democrat on the oversight committee.

The Constitution provides that Congress may remove a president for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Impeachment by the House -- the political equivalent of a criminal indictment -- would spark a “trial” by the Senate, with the president losing his job if he is convicted.

The oversight committee touted its first hearing as a “refresher course” on the panel´s work so far. But opponents say the idea is simply to have a damaging open-ended inquiry going into an election year, and that an impeachment would never have sufficient support in the House, where the Republicans have a razor-thin majority.

The probe has already obtained more than 12,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records from Biden family members and hours of testimony from Hunter´s business associates and federal investigators.

Republicans advanced various conspiracy theories implicating Biden in corruption scandals involving his son and Ukrainian energy company Burisma that have been undercut by US diplomats or investigated and dropped by Republican former president Donald Trump´s Justice Department.