OPINION:
House Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, his family’s alleged international influence-peddling operation, and the Biden administration’s cover-up of the alleged criminal activity.
This investigation is based on a firm foundation of facts and evidence, including bank records, shell companies, Treasury Department suspicious activities reports, text messages, emails, sworn testimony, credible whistleblowers, FBI confidential source reports, and the president’s lies to the American people.
To put it bluntly, Democrats and liberal journalists would have died and gone to heaven if they had half this much damaging information against former President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made the right call to move forward, because Americans have seen enough. Congressional Republicans must continue to do the work that Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel David Weiss have failed to do for so long.
Evidence shows that nearly $20 million and counting has made it into the bank accounts of Biden family members due to Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings around the globe. They say that a rising tide lifts all boats, which is certainly true in the case of the Biden family.
It’s indisputable that the Biden family modus operandi was to sell Joe Biden’s powerful position in government to anyone willing to pay. Phone calls, dinners, photographs, letters, and firsthand accounts prove that the patriarch was aware of and involved in the game being played.
It’s obvious that “the Big Guy’s” gravitas was the X factor in turning the Biden foreign money vacuum into a lucrative venture.
The mountain of evidence that has been accumulated by House Republicans over the past eight months despite the stonewalling by the Biden administration — the least transparent in history — is truly astonishing. The Justice Department, the FBI, the Treasury Department and the National Archives are slow-walking congressional document requests as a rule.
With the impeachment inquiry underway, outstanding document requests must become subpoenas on the double. If an agency chooses to obstruct and litigate, it’s time to get to it.
The White House has set up an impeachment war room full of lightweights who are leading with the false claim that no evidence exists and that the investigation is based on a lie. With all the information that has been unearthed this year, this desperate defense can only be described as weak and unserious.
Unsurprisingly, the Biden administration is soliciting the help of its allies in the mainstream media to facilitate their falsehoods, just like when they wrote — inaccurately — that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.
Since the 2020 transition period — before the elder Mr. Biden was even sworn in — the Biden family has been getting preferential treatment from the Justice Department. When investigators were ready to ask Hunter Biden about his tax problems in Delaware, then-President-elect Biden’s team and Secret Service detail were tipped off about the plans. The interview was scrapped.
Then, upon taking office, President Biden’s handpicked attorney general, Mr. Garland, swore up and down that Mr. Weiss, the federal prosecutor working the case, would not be interfered with under any circumstances.
Mr. Garland’s various statements on the matter — both under oath and in various news conferences — have been contradicted by whistleblower testimony and backed up by contemporaneous records that they provided to Congress.
From the beginning, everyone knew the Justice Department had a clear conflict of interest with the Hunter Biden investigation, yet DOJ refused to appoint a special counsel for 2½ years — a decision that kick-started the cover-up we’re witnessing. When Mr. Garland was finally forced to appoint a special counsel, he made the consequential mistake of appointing Mr. Weiss for the job, despite his own conflict.
So, now comes the hard part. Congress must issue subpoenas to compel the president, Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family who received funds to appear to testify in person under oath.
It’s also imperative for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith to subpoena the necessary bank records as well, if that hasn’t already happened. These subpoenas will be met with resistance, so House Republicans must stand ready to invoke the Bannon-Navarro doctrine to hold everyone who doesn’t comply with a subpoena in contempt of Congress immediately.
The Jan. 6 Committee and the Biden Justice Department created a new precedent for contempt citations with the prosecutions of Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, so from here on in, those found in contempt of Congress must be prosecuted and jailed.
It’s also critical that impeachment investigators seek testimony and records from Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, who has alleged having knowledge of two separate $5 million payments to Joe and Hunter Biden. Mr. Zlochevsky should also turn over the 17 audio recordings he claims to have of the Bidens discussing Burisma and other matters relating to Ukraine.
Congress must also disclose if any evidence relating to these allegations is already in the possession of the Justice Department or any other government agency.
Americans have a right to know if the president of the United States is corrupt, compromised or both.
President Biden claims he did nothing wrong, so he should cooperate fully with the impeachment inquiry and instruct the agencies under his control to do the same. House Republicans must continue following the facts wherever they lead and refuse to be intimidated by the same establishment forces who tried selling us the fake Trump-Russia collusion narrative for four years.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.
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