Last Thursday, the first impeachment inquiry hearing against President Biden commenced, two weeks after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy created the inquiry with the support of House Republicans. The grounds for this inquiry are regarding the President’s involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The prosecution is calling for impeachment and works to plead their case, as the defendants work to defend President Biden’s image, as they believe these business dealings were separate from the President. The question will be whether the prosecution will have enough grounds to stand on in the inevitable trial.
According to Republicans’ reasons for inquiry, Joe Biden during his vice-presidency with Barack Obama, used his power and name for financial benefit and profitability for himself and his son Hunter. A tip to the FBI claimed Joe Biden accepted 5 million dollars to help cease the continuation of an investigation into the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which Hunter Biden was on the board of, resulting in the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokan. According to Republicans, Joe Biden went to Ukraine to interfere in the investigation, five days after having a business meeting with Hunter’s business assistants, in December 2015.
This evidence has been brought forward by form FD-1023 from the FBI anonymous tip, and due to its lack of direct evidence, has been dismissed by Democrats. However, the prosecution claims that the Biden family was selling the Joe Biden brand, which is his name, and power. They also argue that the Biden family was said to have received 20 million dollars from Russia, China, Ukraine, and Romania during the time in which Joe Biden was serving as our vice president. Attention to this case against the President has also been brought forward by two IRS (Internal Revenue Service) whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziggler who accused assistant U.S. attorney Leslie Wolf of directing her agents to leave Joe Biden out of the investigation of Hunter Biden’s tax issues. Hunter’s tax liability of over 2 million dollars was paid off by Kevin Morris, who has no known relations to Hunter Biden.
The defendants claimed that former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani created the story of Joe Biden stopping the investigation of Burisma for his and his son’s financial benefit on August 27th. They claim that Joe Biden called for the removal of Agent Shokan, due to his corruption in the investigation of Burisma. The Democrats argue that MAGA Republicans created this inquiry under the order of Donald Trump, since he had tweeted that Biden should be impeached. They also argued that in 2021 Republicans saw no grounds to impeach Trump, even though he was indicted for an alleged abuse of power and obstructing Congress. They also argue that the Republicans have no evidence of any wrongdoing on President Biden, only evidence of Hunter’s wrongdoings, with no eyewitness or direct evidence connecting the corruption to the President. The defendants further their argument by stating their dismay at the timing of this inquiry as the country is on a break of a government shutdown. The Democrats also attacked the personal lives of the expert panel of witnesses brought forth to assist in the inquiry, which was uncalled for.
In response to these arguments, an expert panel of witnesses of legal scholars and forensic accountants gave their statements about the case as well as answered questions. Professor Turley among some of the other expert witnesses stated that as of this time, they believe there is not enough evidence to convict President Biden, however, the witnesses noted that there is a warrant for the inquiry of the President. Turley also stated that the influence peddling perpetrated by Hunter is illegal and is a cause for concern for President Biden.
At this time in the inquiry, the prosecution has not yet developed direct evidence to prove the President was involved in the beneficial influencing of his son, and that they will need to do so to move past the inquiry part of the impeachment.
