Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Our action was not done in haste or out of partisan spite. This effort was also not completed without an in-depth investigation or evidence worthy of such a grave vote. Several House committees have spent months gathering loads of information, holding hearings, interviewing witnesses, and laying a foundation of facts. The emerging case against Biden and his family is strong, and the resistance from the president, his team, and his allies is even stronger, which suggests to those interested in the truth that we are on the right path in our quest for justice.
To be clear, the Biden impeachment inquiry is being conducted much differently than the one used to frame former President Donald Trump in 2019, when Democrats were laser-focused on a false Russian collusion narrative. I should know because I served on the House Judiciary Committee, which was right in the middle of the highly partisan and suspect proceedings. Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), took much of their case to an underground bunker, where they fashioned a flimsy case to satisfy their insatiable desire to remove Trump from office. They accomplished part of their goal when the House voted to impeach Trump (which the Senate then rejected), but they lost the public’s trust with their behavior and antics.
Republicans today, however, are committed to a different process with more integrity and transparency than displayed by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We are the party of law and order, and we are trying to obtain facts that the White House is desperately attempting to hide — and that Democrats and members of the media are largely unwilling to investigate. Our pursuit is justice, not revenge or partisan rage.
We believe there is evidence that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have broken the law as he played a role in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings around the world. If the facts lead us to a conclusion that laws were violated, then the perpetrators should pay the price. If no laws were broken, then President Biden and his family members can thank Republicans for helping to clear their names and reputations.
This should not be a Republican versus Democrat operation; this should be a bipartisan probe for truthful answers.
Over the past year, we have learned that Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, which is being investigated by the Justice Department for tax evasion and other serious crimes, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden. We have also discovered that then-Vice President Biden sent out emails using a fake name for himself in more than 82,000 pages of emails, that he received $40,000 in laundered money from China, and that he played a major role in the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin for his investigation of Burisma. There are bank records, emails, phone conversations, and more that prove all of this.
What’s worse is that the story from President Biden keeps shifting. First, he knew nothing about the “family business.” Then, he knew, but he wasn’t involved with Hunter. Then, he just wasn’t financially involved. There are 14 hours of transcribed interviews with two IRS whistleblowers that indicate President Biden not only knew about but participated in Hunter Biden’s corrupt foreign business deals.
Sadly, congressional Democrats and the Biden White House have done everything possible to stonewall our fact-finding efforts. Just recently, Hunter Biden blew off a congressional subpoena to testify before one of our committees. Instead of complying with a lawful summons to appear, Hunter Biden found time to challenge our constitutional authority right outside of the U.S. Capitol, where some of my colleagues may have aided his brazen deed. Make no mistake: Whether the president’s son testifies or not, Congress will uncover the whole truth behind his family business.
The White House has also avoided full compliance with congressional requests over the past year, forcing our investigators to often go to extraordinary measures to acquire information. The president’s general counsel, for example, has rejected requests for interviews and depositions with current and former administration staff. The White House claimed that the basis for its decision was, in part, due to the lack of an official impeachment inquiry approved by the whole U.S. House of Representatives, despite the precedent set by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during the 2019 Trump impeachment. Federal departments and agencies have also resisted our efforts to obtain many troves of documents relevant to these inquiries.
As the nation learned the hard way in 2019, the impeachment of a president of the United States is one of the most serious actions that members of Congress can undertake, in large part, because it divides the country. Democrats destroyed the integrity of the process. Republicans will not make the same mistake. Regardless of what those afraid of the truth may say, we will follow the facts and nothing but the facts in the pursuit of the timeless American standard of justice.
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Debbie Lesko is a U.S. representative for Arizona and serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
