OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Republicans just caught a big break in their ongoing investigation into alleged corrupt foreign business dealings involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as other members of the current first family.
Just the News reported late Monday that the National Archives is set to hand over nearly 1,800 emails to the House Oversight Committee in response to a request from Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) as part of the GOP-lead impeachment inquiry into the current president.
“Among those documents are 1,799 emails and attachments, totaling more than 60,000 pages, the Washington Examiner reported. The emails include messages to and from then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter involving Ukraine and energy firm Burisma,” Just the News added.
The outlet noted further: Burisma has long attracted Republican attention, largely due to allegations that the firm paid off both Hunter and Joe to stifle a probe from then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the firm. Earlier this year, an unclassified FBI document outlining the alleged scheme based on confidential human source information went public.
Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the start of the impeachment inquiry in September. He did so, however, without holding a chamber-wide vote, which Republicans are expected to hold this week.
On Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson dropped some bad news on President Joe Biden as the 2024 presidential election is beginning to heat up.
During an interview on Fox News, the Louisiana Republican said he believes House Republicans have enough votes to launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Host Pete Hegeseth asked: “We mentioned impeachment, which requires votes, and we mentioned that with Santos out, you have an even tighter margin. Do you have the votes formally to start an impeachment process?”
“Yeah, I believe we will. I suspect no Democrats will assist in this effort. But they should. The facts are so clear for everyone to see. Just a couple of numbers to remember: just real quick off the top, $15 million. We know that the Biden family received at least $15 million from foreign nationals and companies, including Ukraine, Russia, and China. Just between 2014 and 2019, at least 16 times on record, Joe Biden has lied about his involvement in the family’s business dealings and Hunter Biden’s business dealings,” Johnson said.
He added: “We know 22 times—at least 22 times—the president met with or talked with Hunter’s foreign business associates. And we have checks. We have checks written to Joe Biden that the Oversight Committee has found in the banking records: $40,000 from China and $200,000 from a now-bankrupt healthcare company that his brother James Biden swindled. But the evidence is so clear, you cannot look away. And the Constitution requires the House to follow the truth wherever it leads. We—we—have to do this. We cannot stop the process.”
Johnson also stood by his comments last week, where he said House Republicans will obscure the identities of the individuals who entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This is being done before the release of additional security footage to safeguard them from potential reprisals by the Department of Justice, he said.
“We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other concerns and problems,” Johnson said.
“We’re working steadily on it. And we’ve hired additional personnel to do that,” Johnson added. “And all of those tapes, ultimately at the end, will be out so everybody can see them.”
Following his remarks, Johnson’s deputy chief for communications explained that the blurring is necessary to prevent all forms of retaliation and that the DOJ already has access to the raw footage.
“Faces are to be blurred from public viewing room footage to prevent all forms of retaliation against private citizens from any non-governmental actors. The Department of Justice already has access to raw footage from January 6, 2021,” Deputy Chief for Communications Raj Shah tweeted.
