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House Republicans have released their initial\u00a0impeachment inquiry<\/a>\u00a0report into President\u00a0Joe Biden<\/a>, alleging an abuse of power and obstruction of justice in the financial dealings of his son\u00a0Hunter Biden<\/a>\u00a0and family associates.<\/p>\n The nearly yearlong inquiry by Republicans stops short of alleging any criminal wrongdoing by the president. Instead, the almost 300-page report out Monday ahead of the\u00a0Democratic National Convention<\/a>\u00a0covers familiar ground, asserting the Biden family traded on its \u201cbrand\u201d in business ventures in corrupt ways that rise to the Constitution\u2019s high bar for impeachment.<\/p>\n With Biden\u00a0no longer running for reelection<\/a>, next steps are highly uncertain. House Republicans have not had\u00a0support from their own ranks<\/a>\u00a0to actually impeach the president, and removal by the Senate is even further afield. Many Republicans prefer to focus attention on the Democratic Party\u2019s presumptive presidential nominee Vice President\u00a0Kamala Harris<\/a>, with some probes getting underway.<\/p>\n The White House has dismissed the House impeachment inquiry as a \u201cstunt\u201d and encouraged House Republicans to\u00a0\u201cmove on.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious,\u201d wrote the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary and Ways & Means panels\u00a0leading the inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n The report said the Constitution\u2019s \u201cremedy for a President\u2019s flagrant abuse of office is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans have spent the better part of their time in the House majority with a hyper focus on Biden and his family\u2019s businesses, encouraged by\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0as the\u00a0twice impeached<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0indicted former president<\/a>\u00a0makes a comeback bid for the White House.<\/p>\n The impeachment inquiry has been a cornerstone of the House GOP\u2019s effort,\u00a0launched<\/a>\u00a0by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy shortly before he was booted from leadership and\u00a0formalized in December<\/a>\u00a0under new Speaker Mike Johnson. Republicans are investigating many aspects of Biden family finances going back to 2009 when he was vice president to Barack Obama.<\/p>\n Through bank records, interviews from some 30 witnesses, whistleblower accounts and millions of documents, House Republicans allege a years-long practice by Hunter Biden and his associates to solicit foreign business deals using the family\u2019s proximity to power in Washington.<\/p>\n Much of the focus of the report is not on Biden\u2019s time as president, but on the years when\u00a0the Biden family was in turmoil<\/a>\u00a0after the 2015 death of his oldest son, Beau, and as the vice president was bowing out of elected office, declining to run for president in 2016.<\/p>\n Hunter Biden has acknowledged a serious addiction to crack in these years. He was convicted in June of\u00a0felony gun charges<\/a>\u00a0and is set to stand trial next month on\u00a0federal tax charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former Hunter Biden associate\u00a0Devon Archer<\/a>, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 2022 in another matter, told the committee, \u201cAt the end of the day, part of what was delivered is the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n To tie the elder Biden to his son\u2019s actions, the Republicans rely on a series of phone calls and pop-by dinner meeting visits Joe Biden made while Hunter was conducting business. At times, Hunter would put his dad\u00a0on speakerphone<\/a>\u00a0for his guests as the father and son exchanged pleasantries.<\/p>\n The Bidens are a famously tight-knit family and acknowledge they speak almost daily, including during this time, with the father checking on his son\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n In his own defiant closed-door deposition to House investigators, Hunter Biden insisted he\u00a0did not involve his father<\/a>\u00a0in his business.<\/p>\n All told, the House Republicans allege the Biden family and its associates received some $27 million in business payments from partners or clients in Russia, China and other countries. They allege another $8 million in loans, including some from Hunter Biden benefactor Kevin Morris, a Hollywood attorney, and question the purchases of\u00a0the son\u2019s artwork<\/a>.<\/p>\n The report said it is \u201cinconceivable\u201d that President Biden did not understand what was going on.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family,\u201d the report claims.<\/p>\n Biden himself\u00a0declined a request<\/a>\u00a0to testify before the House.<\/p>\n Touchbacks to Trump\u2019s\u00a0impeachments<\/a>\u00a0at the hands of Democrats run throughout the report\u2019s pages as Republicans work to contrast his grounds for removal to Biden family\u2019s dealings and \u201cgrift.\u201d<\/p>\n But the difference are stark, as the indicted Trump faces actual criminal charges, including in the conspiracy to overturn Biden\u2019s 2020 election and draw supporters to Washington on the day of the\u00a0Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.<\/a><\/p>\n The report also accuses Biden of obstructing justice in the probe, revisiting previously aired complaints about the Justice Department\u2019s handling of investigation into Hunter Biden. Attorney General Merrick Garland has forcefully denied those accusations, defending the department against claims of political influence.<\/p>\n It focuses heavily on what Republicans have long alleged was a pattern of \u201cslow-walking\u201d investigative steps and delaying enforcement actions to the benefit of the president\u2019s son.<\/p>\n But the report provides no evidence that Biden had any involvement in his son\u2019s investigation, which was launched under Trump\u2019s presidency and has been led by a Delaware U.S. attorney appointed by Trump. The U.S. attorney, David Weiss, was kept on by Garland to insulate the probe from claims of political interference.<\/p>\n Garland has insisted that no one at the White House gave him or other senior officials at the Justice Department direction about the handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.<\/p>\n Beyond<\/a> Hunter Biden, the report includes details of the involvement of Joe Biden\u2019s brother, James, in the various family businesses.<\/p>\n Republicans have pointed to a series of payments that they claim show the president benefited from his brother\u2019s work. They point to a $200,000 personal check from James Biden to Joe Biden on the same day in 2018 that James Biden received an equal amount from Americore, a healthcare company.<\/p>\n House Democrats have defended the transaction, pointing to bank records they say indicate\u00a0James Biden<\/a>\u00a0was repaying a loan provided by his brother, who had wire transferred $200,000 to him about six weeks earlier. The money changed hands while Joe Biden was a private citizen.<\/p>\n\n