House Republicans to hold first hearing on Biden impeachment inquiry

Republicans will hold their first impeachment hearing against Joe Biden on Thursday, the latest step in a months-long effort investigating the president and his son Hunter’s business dealings that has yet to turn up substantial evidence of wrongdoing.

Republicans are plowing ahead anyway, in what seems to be a thinly veiled effort to try to muddy the waters as Donald Trump, who leads the Republican primary field, faces four different criminal cases.

Thursday’s hearing, led by the House oversight committee, is titled The Basis for an Impeachment Inquiry of President Joseph R Biden Jr. Three witnesses are scheduled to appear. One is Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University and paid Fox News contributor who testified against Trump’s first impeachment. Another is Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant who has made misleading claims about Hunter Biden’s finances. The third is Eileen O’Connor, a former assistant attorney general in Department of Justice’s tax division, who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal criticizing the investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances. O’Connor served on Trump’s 2016 transition team for the treasury department, the Washington Post reported.

For years, Republicans have sought to link Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign companies to Biden. But after reviewing thousands of pages of Hunter Biden’s financial records, they have yet to turn up any kind of substantial evidence, according to the New York Times. GOP lawmakers hope to build enough of a case of bribery and abuse of power by Biden.

The hearing comes as Republicans have struggled to coalesce to pass a spending plan to keep the US government open. Democrats have seized on the Thursday hearing to accuse Republicans of being unserious about passing a spending plan.

“It’s hard to grasp the complete derangement of this moment,” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who serves as the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, told the New York Times. “Three days before they’re set to shut down the United States government, Republicans launch a baseless impeachment drive against President Biden. No one can figure out the logic of either course of action.”

Republicans have said they will move forward with impeachment, even if the government shuts down.