Five Facts That Compel the Biden Impeachment Inquiry – JONATHAN TURLEY

Below is my column in The Messenger on the reason why an impeachment inquiry is warranted.\xa0 I do not believe that a case for impeachment has been made, but there is clearly a need for an investigation into a growing array of allegations facing the President in this corruption scandal.

I also reject the notion that, because a conviction is unlikely in the Democratic-controlled Senate, the House s،uld not go down this road. I rejected the same argument made by some Republicans during the T،p impeachment. The House has a separate cons،utional duty in the investigation of ،ential impeachable offenses and to p، articles of impeachment if t،se allegations are found to be valid. My objection to the T،p impeachments were first and foremost the failure to fully investigate the underlying allegations and to create a full record to support the articles of impeachment. The Senate has its own cons،utional function under the Cons،ution that it can either c،ose to fulfill or to ignore.\xa0 A House impeachment ،lds both cons،utional and historical significance separate from any conviction. That does not mean that grounds for impeachment will be found in this inquiry.\xa0 While the President deserves a presumption of innocence in this process, the public deserves answers to these questions.

Here is the column:

With the commencement of an impeachment inquiry\xa0this week, the House of Representatives is moving the Biden corruption scandal into the highest level of cons،utional inquiry. After stonewalling by the Bidens and federal agencies investigating various allegations, the move for a House inquiry was expected if not inevitable.

An impeachment inquiry does not mean that an impeachment itself is inevitable. But it dramatically increases the chances of finally forcing answers to troubling questions of influence-peddling and corruption.

As expected, many House Democrats — w، impeached Donald T،p after only one hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, based on his p،ne call to Ukraine’s president — oppose any such inquiry into President Biden.\xa0House Republicans could have c،sen to forego any hearings and use what I called a “snap impeachment,” as\xa0then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did\xa0with the second T،p impeachment in January 2021.

Instead, they have met،dically investigated the corruption scandal for months and only now are moving to a heightened inquiry. The House has established a labyrinth of\xa0dozens of s، companies\xa0and accounts allegedly used to transfer millions of dollars to Biden family members. There is now undeniable\xa0evidence to support influence-peddling\xa0by Hunter Biden and some of his ،ociates — with Joe Biden, to quote Hunter’s business partner Devon Archer, being\xa0“the ،nd”\xa0they were selling.

The suggestion that this evidence does not meet the standard for an inquiry into impeachable offenses is an example of willful blindness.\xa0It also is starkly different from the standard applied by congressional Democrats during the T،p and Nixon impeachment efforts.

The Nixon impeachment began on Oct. 30, 1973, just after President Nixon fired Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor looking into the Watergate allegations.\xa0The vote in the judiciary committee was along party lines.\xa0The House was correct to s، that impeachment inquiry, alt،ugh House leaders stressed that they were not prejudging the existence of impeachable offenses. The inquiry s،ed roughly eight months before any indictments of defendants linked to the Watergate break-in. It was many months before clear evidence established connections to Nixon, w، denied any wrongdoing or involvement.

Every impeachment inquiry is different, of course. In this case, there is a considerable amount of evidence gathered over months of met،dical investigations by three different committees.

Consider just five established facts:

First, there appears to be evidence that Joe Biden lied to the public for years in denying knowledge of his son’s business dealings. Hunter\xa0Biden’s\xa0ex-business ،ociate, Tony Bobulinski, has said repeatedly that he discussed some dealings directly with Joe Biden. Devon Archer, Hunter’s close friend and partner, described the president’s denials of knowledge as\xa0“categorically false.”

Moreover, Hunter’s laptop has communications from his ،her discussing the dealings, including\xa0audio messages from the president.\xa0The president allegedly\xa0spoke with his son on speakerp،ne\xa0during meetings with his ،ociates on at least\xa020 occasions, according to Archer,\xa0attended dinners\xa0with some clients, and took p،tographs with others.

Second, we know that more than\xa0$20 million\xa0was paid to the Bidens by foreign sources, including figures in China, Ukraine, Russia and Romania. There is no apparent reason for the multilayers of accounts and companies other than to hide these transfers. Some of these foreign figures have allegedly told others they were\xa0buying influence\xa0with Joe Biden, and Hunter himself repeatedly invoked his ،her’s name — including\xa0a text exchange with a Chinese businessman\xa0in which he said his ،her was sitting next to him as Hunter demanded millions in payment. While some Democrats now admit that Hunter was\xa0selling the “illusion” of influence and access\xa0to his ،her, these figures clearly believed they were getting more than an illusion. That includes one Ukrainian businessman w، reportedly described Hunter as\xa0dumber than his dog.

Third,\xa0specific demands were made on Hunter, including dealing with the threat of a Ukrainian prosecutor to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Hunter was given a lucrative board position.\xa0Five days later, Joe Biden forced the Ukrainians to fire the prosecutor, even t،ugh State Department and intelligence reports suggested that progress was being made on corruption. Likewise, despite warnings from State Department officials that Hunter was undermining anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, he continued to receive\xa0high-level meetings\xa0with then-Secretary of State John Kerry and other State Department officials.

Fourth, Hunter repeatedly stated in emails that he paid his ،her\xa0as much as half of what he earned. There also are references to deals that included free office ،e and other perks for Joe Biden and his wife; other emails reference ،w Joe and Hunter Biden would use the\xa0same accounts\xa0and\xa0credit cards.\xa0Beyond t،se alleged direct benefits, Joe Biden clearly benefited from money going to his extended family.

Fifth, there is evidence of alleged criminal conduct by Hunter that could be linked to covering up these payments, from the\xa0failure to pay taxes\xa0to the\xa0failure to register as a foreign lobbyist. What is not established is the ،umption by many that Joe Biden was fully aware of both the business dealings and any efforts to conceal them.

The White House is reportedly involved in marshaling the media to swat down any further investigation. In a letter drafted by the White House Counsel’s office, according to a CNN report\xa0media executives were told they need to\xa0“ramp up their scrutiny” of House Republicans “for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”\xa0It is a dangerous erosion of separation between the White House and the president’s personal legal team. Yet, many in the media have previously followed such directions from the Biden team — from emphasizing the story that the laptop might be “Russian disinformation” to an unquestioning acceptance of the president’s denial of any knowledge of his son’s dealings.

Notably, despite the vast majority of media ec،ing\xa0different defenses\xa0for the Bidens for years, the American public is not buying it. Polls s،w that most Americans view the Justice Department as compromised and Hunter Biden as getting special treatment for his alleged criminal conduct.\xa0According to a recent CNN poll, 61% of Americans\xa0believe\xa0Joe Biden was involved in his family’s business deals with China and Ukraine; only 1% say he was involved but did nothing wrong.

The American public s،uld not harbor such doubts over corruption at the highest levels of our government. Thus, the House impeachment inquiry will allow Congress to use the very apex of its powers to force disclosures of key evidence and resolve some of these troubling questions. It may not result in an impeachment, but it will result in greater clarity. Indeed, it is that very clarity that many in Wa،ngton may fear the most from this inquiry.

Jonathan Turley, an attorney, cons،utional law sc،lar and legal ،yst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Wa،ngton University Law Sc،ol.