The United States House of Representatives will on Thursday hold its first hearing in its impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden.
The hearing will serve as a justification of sorts for the probe and a review of what details Republicans have uncovered so far, according to James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
He added that the hearing is not likely to reveal new information about Biden’s financial ties to his troubled son, Hunter Biden, who pursued a range of international business ventures while struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.
Reuters reports that lawmakers will hear from a forensic accountant, a former U.S. Justice Department official and a law professor.
Republicans allege Biden and his family personally profited from policies he pursued as vice president during former President Barack Obama’s administration between 2009 and 2017. Separately, they also allege the Justice Department interfered with a tax investigation of Hunter Biden.
They have yet to provide any evidence of improper conduct by the elder Biden. The White House says the inquiry is unfounded and driven by politics ahead of the 2024 presidential election, when Biden will likely face a rematch with Republican Donald Trump, who faces four upcoming criminal trials.
It is unclear if House Republicans, who have a narrow 221-212 majority, would have the votes at the end of the inquiry to support actual impeachment. But even if that vote succeeded, it is highly unlikely that the Senate, where Democrats hold a 51-49 majority, would vote to remove Biden from office.
At the center of the investigation are allegations that Biden, as vice president, pressured Ukraine to fire a top prosecutor because the prosecutor was investigating Burisma, a company for which Hunter Biden was on the board of directors.
But Ukraine’s president at the time, Petro Poroshenko, told Fox News Channel on Saturday that was not the case.
House Republicans have said they plan to seek personal and business bank records for Hunter Biden and James Biden, the president’s brother.
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee said it had obtained bank wires from Chinese nationals sent to Hunter, listing Joe Biden’s home address in Delaware as the destination, before he was president. It is not clear if Biden received the money.
The hearing comes as House Republicans are locked in a showdown with Biden and his fellow Democrats over government funding for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Wide swaths of the government will shut down if they do not reach agreement.
A prolonged shutdown could slow the impeachment inquiry as fewer administration officials would be available to respond to information requests.
The post Trouble For Biden As US House Of Reps Set To Hold First Impeachment Inquiry Hearing appeared first on Naija News.