As House Republicans prepare to launch their official impeachment inquiry into President Biden, they were handed a fortuitous gift from the special counsel pursuing Hunter Biden.
The new tax evasion charges against Mr. Biden’s son build on a previous felony firearms charge, add heft to GOP leaders’ case for impeachment, and could help sway some swing votes.
The president is not mentioned in the 56-page indictment, filed in federal court in California, which details his son’s struggles with drug addiction and his use of sexual partners as tax write-offs.
But key Republicans said the three felony and six misdemeanor tax charges give them new avenues to pursue as they try to figure out if the president was involved with his son’s questionable business dealings.
“Now that Hunter Biden is being charged for felony criminal activity related to the family business in which Joe Biden himself was aware and from which he benefited, Americans deserve more answers,” said Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. “These charges further confirm the need for Congress to move forward with an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden in order to uncover all the facts for the American people to judge.”
An aide for Mr. Smith, Missouri Republican, told The Washington Times that the lawmaker is confident that the findings from his and the House Oversight and Judiciary committees are “compelling” and justify taking a formal vote on the inquiry.
The House has been conducting an inquiry under orders from the speaker, but GOP leaders decided an official inquiry, approved by a vote of the chamber, could give them more power to compel cooperation.
A vote is expected on Wednesday or Thursday.
House Republicans are also hoping to get Hunter Biden to appear before lawmakers. He has been subpoenaed to give closed-door testimony, but his lawyer has said he wants to do it in public.
The new charges could spur him to refuse to answer questions, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Some Republicans who were initially skeptical about the impeachment push have warmed to the idea, and the new indictment could give them political cover.
Speaker Mike Johnson will need nearly every Republican vote, given his party’s narrow majority and the expected opposition of all Democrats.
The resolution directs the House Judiciary, Oversight and Ways & Means committees to “continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Joseph Biden.”
Mr. Biden has said he was not involved in his son’s business dealings and never even discussed business with his son.
Republicans say that’s hard to square with Hunter Biden’s messages to business associates indicating his father was both aware and taking an active role in pressuring foreign associates.
So far, Republicans have not firmly connected those dots, though they say they have tantalizing clues.
Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said he is convinced Mr. Biden is dirty.
“We now know that Joe Biden used aliases and private email addresses to communicate with Hunter and his business associates. Hundred of times,” Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, said on X.
The new charges against Hunter Biden don’t help Republicans make any links to the president, but they do provide a road map of the son’s work with Ukrainian and Chinese firms, which paid him millions of dollars for seemingly little work.
The indictment points out that Hunter Biden was educated at Georgetown University and Yale University, is a lawyer, and “engaged in a four-year scheme” to evade his taxes.
That included “willfully” failing to pay his taxes from 2016 to 2019 on time, even though he had funds to pay at least some of it; failing to file returns on time in 2017 and 2018; stopping payment on taxes he owed from 2015; and, when he did file for 2018, lying about his expenses to try to boost his deductions and cheat on what he should be paying.
At the same time, he “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” the grand jury charged.
Among his expenses were “payments to various women” with whom he was in romantic or sexual relationships and a $10,000 payment “for his membership in a sex club.”
He also claimed to have paid wages to a woman who was carrying his child.
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, blasted the new charges as unfair.
“Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” the lawyer said.
The charges match what two IRS investigators publicly revealed this summer in blockbuster testimony that upended a generous plea deal a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney had offered Hunter Biden, which Republicans said is more justification for their current approach.
“The latest tax charges against Hunter Biden confirm the whistleblowers’ testimony that the investigation was politicized and slow walked by Biden’s DOJ,” said a source close to the investigation. “But for the whistleblowers and judge in Delaware, Hunter Biden would have gotten away with the sweetheart plea deal.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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