{"id":2049148,"date":"2023-09-29T05:29:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T09:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-investigation-top-takeaways-from-the-first-impeachment-inquiry-hearing\/"},"modified":"2023-09-29T05:32:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T09:32:12","slug":"hunter-biden-investigation-top-takeaways-from-the-first-impeachment-inquiry-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-investigation-top-takeaways-from-the-first-impeachment-inquiry-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Key points from the initial impeachment inquiry hearing on the Hunter Biden investigation."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhunter-biden-investigation-top-takeaways-from-the-first-impeachment-inquiry-hearing%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2049148&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>House Republicans Lay Out Basis for Impeachment Inquiry, Highlighting New Evidence<\/h2>\n<p>House Republicans used their first impeachment inquiry hearing on Thursday to lay out the basis for starting the proceedings, just one day after \u200breleasing hundreds of pages of evidence in the Hunter Biden investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Facing frequent objections from Democrats\u2064 defending President\u200c Joe Biden, GOP lawmakers \u200brelied\u2062 on a panel of tax and legal\u200c experts to \u2064explain the seriousness of the allegations against the \u200cpresident.<\/p>\n<h3>No More Defenses for Hunter<\/h3>\n<p>Few Democrats even attempted to defend Hunter Biden\u2019s years\u2063 of profiting off foreign relationships, even though many have done so in the past.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, several Democrats\u2062 used their time during the \u2063hearing \u2063to distance Joe Biden from what his son had done over \u200bthe past decade, without defending Hunter Biden\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe name\u200c that\u2019s been repeated most often in this\u2064 hearing is Hunter Biden, not President Biden,\u201d said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North\u2062 Carolina \u200claw professor who served as \u200cthe Democrats\u2019 witness.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Turley, \u200ba <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-overturns-california-magazine-ban-for-second-time\/\" title=\"Federal judge again overturns California magazine ban.\">constitutional\u2062 law professor<\/a> at George Washington University whom the Republicans \u200ccalled as a witness, also spoke\u2063 to\u2064 the widespread acknowledgment that Hunter Biden acted unethically.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany people \u200caccept that what Hunter Biden did was rather\u2064 raw and open influence peddling,\u201d Turley said.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2020 race, Democrats tried \u2063to defend Hunter Biden\u2019s conduct by arguing that he was a private citizen, an attorney, and had a background in lobbying that qualified him to work \u2064as a consultant \u2064while\u200c his father was vice president.<\/p>\n<p>Now Democrats are focused mostly\u200c on discrediting evidence that links Joe Biden to Hunter Biden\u2019s deals in China, Ukraine, Romania, and beyond, not on\u2064 arguing that Hunter\u200b Biden\u2019s work\u200d is above criticism.<\/p>\n<h3>Jim Biden Has Entered the Chat<\/h3>\n<p>Lawmakers discussed newly unveiled \u2064messages between Hunter Biden and his uncle, Jim Biden, that underscored how deeply \u2064intertwined the\u200b Biden family\u2019s finances are.<\/p>\n<p>In a December 2018 message released on Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, Jim Biden\u2064 consoled \u200cHunter Biden about money troubles, assuring Hunter Biden that he could \u201cwork with [your] father alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe as usual just need several months\u2064 of his help for this to work,\u201d James Biden, the president\u2019s brother, wrote to Hunter Biden in the WhatsApp message.<\/p>\n<p>In another message, this one from August 2017, Hunter Biden wrote to a Chinese business associate that Jim Biden would be bringing his brother to a meeting with the powerful\u200d chairman of a Chinese company that was then paying both Hunter and Jim Biden large amounts of money.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Biden\u2019s \u200dbrother is, of course, Joe Biden, who was \u200bno longer vice president at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Emails from\u2062 Hunter Biden\u2019s abandoned laptop had previously revealed Jim Biden\u2019s \u2063extensive involvement in Hunter Biden\u2019s Chinese \u2062business \u200dventures. But in \u2062a\u200c September\u200c 2022 interview with FBI and IRS investigators, a summary of which was released on \u200dWednesday, Jim Biden claimed to have had very little knowledge \u2062of how the Chinese company operated and denied \u200bhaving close relationships with any of the Chinese executives paying him through Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n<p>House Republicans have \u2062spent relatively little time \u200bfocusing on Jim \u200cBiden\u2019s involvement in foreign business deals, giving Hunter \u200dBiden\u2019s work far more scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>But Jim Biden\u2019s ability\u200b to earn significant \u200bamounts of money from Hunter Biden\u2019s foreign businesses despite having a markedly different \u200bprofessional background could become a larger \u200cpart of the impeachment inquiry, as Republicans could argue the proximity to Joe Biden is the only reason both \u200cHunter and Jim Biden managed to rake in money.<\/p>\n<h3>Does It Matter If Joe Biden Received Payments Directly?<\/h3>\n<p>That was a question\u200c Republicans appeared to pose as they laid out\u2063 a case\u200c for their\u2063 impeachment inquiry\u2063 that, they suggested, is strong enough without evidence of a direct payment to Joe\u2062 Biden.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2063 foreign money pocketed by Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, Hallie Biden, and other family members could form the basis of a case that \u200cfocuses on what Joe Biden may have done to enable\u200b such earnings, \u200beven if no\u2062 paper trail ever connects his bank account to the foreign deals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously the strongest case \u200dis \u2062if you\u2064 have a direct \u2063payment,\u201d \u2063Turley said \u200dduring the hearing. \u201cBut\u200d this idea that you can \u2062have millions going to a politician\u2019s family \u200cand that\u2019s not a benefit, I think, is pretty \u200cfallacious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GOP \u200blawmakers cited emails, texts, and \u2062witness testimony that showed how Hunter Biden \u2063and his associates used Joe Biden \u200cto advance business \u200cdeals by bringing him to meetings, putting him on speakerphone with\u200c foreign partners,\u200c or using the trappings of the vice presidency, such as White \u2064House visits, to project access.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans argued the record already demonstrates that Hunter Biden\u2019s foreign business would not \u2062have been possible without the participation of\u2064 his father.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow\u200c can President Biden continue to maintain that Hunter\u2019s private\u2062 business is simply that, private, when it\u2019s clear from bank records, emails, and testimony that Joe \u200cBiden\u200c was intimately involved in Hunter\u2019s pay-to-play scheme and crooked foreign business dealings?\u201d said Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS) during the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats, meanwhile,\u200b declared the impeachment case dead \u2062without\u200c evidence of direct payments from foreign businesses to \u2062Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Whether Republicans can advance their arguments absent a direct payment could determine the fate\u200b of \u2064the impeachment process.<\/p>\n<h3>Biden Aides Under Scrutiny?<\/h3>\n<p>Some GOP \u200blawmakers suggested that current and former White House aides who helped Joe Biden mislead the public about Hunter Biden\u2019s business deals could become relevant to the case.<\/p>\n<p>Turley \u2064testified\u200c that \u2063former President Richard Nixon\u2019s use of his aides to cover up evidence of corruption was ultimately a \u201ctrip\u2064 wire\u201d in the impeachment inquiry proceedings against him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe degree to \u2064which you enlist\u200d support for \u200da false narrative or to obstruct Congress can go into \u2062things like abuse of power,\u201d Turley \u2064said.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Biden\u2019s aides during his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-investigation-top-takeaways-from-the-first-impeachment-inquiry-hearing\/\" title=\"Key points from the initial impeachment inquiry hearing on the Hunter Biden investigation.\">vice presidency helped spread \u200cmisleading information<\/a> about Hunter \u200dBiden\u2019s work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and recently released \u2062emails suggest the aides coordinated \u200dwith one of Hunter Biden\u2019s business partners on \u200chow to \u2062respond\u200b to questions\u200c from \u200creporters. The aides may not have done so knowingly.<\/p>\n<p>GOP lawmakers pointed to Attorney General Merrick Garland as another example of a top\u200b aide who misled the\u200b public in an effort to shield Joe \u2063Biden from scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>Garland claimed \u200crepeatedly that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss had\u200c full authority to charge Hunter\u200d Biden in any\u2064 jurisdiction he \u2064saw fit before two IRS whistleblowers revealed Weiss had no such power. \u200bTestifying before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Garland said Weiss would \u2062have\u200b had the authority if he\u2019d \u2062requested it, a departure from his previous assertions.<\/p>\n<p>Statements by Garland and other Joe Biden aides could come under the\u200b microscope\u200b as Republicans \u200bpiece together how\u2062 the \u2063administration has handled\u2063 inquiries into the \u200dHunter Biden business controversy.<\/p>\n<h3>It\u2019s (Super) Complicated<\/h3>\n<p>GOP \u2062lawmakers attempted to lay out all\u200c the names,\u2063 dates, dollar amounts, and \u200dcountries that make up their body of evidence, but the complex\u200b nature\u200d of the business \u2063dealings sometimes made the arguments \u200ddifficult to \u2063follow.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout \u2062the hourslong hearing, members cited charts with sprawling networks of shell companies, snippets of texts and emails that spanned years, and the difficult-to-pronounce names of \u2064numerous foreign businessmen who\u2062 worked with Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n<p>The effort underscored the challenges Republicans may \u2062have in explaining their evidence to a \u200dpublic that has heard bits and \u200bpieces about the Biden family business deals for the last three\u200b years.<\/p>\n<p>While House Republicans \u200dhave uncovered a remarkable amount of new information about the dealings since arriving in the majority in January, some \u200bof \u200cit tying Joe Biden to the businesses for the first time, they run \u200dthe\u200d risk of struggling to explain the case \u200cclearly to voters. The sometimes unwieldy impeachment inquiry hearing showed that the\u200d GOP may have work to do on that front.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> What are the potential implications for the\u200c Biden administration as a result \u2062of the involvement of Biden&#8217;s aides in disseminating false information and obstructing Congress?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  To media inquiries about the\u2062 company&#8217;s activities.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans may argue that the involvement of\u2062 Biden&#8217;s aides in disseminating false information and obstructing Congress is grounds for impeachment, \u200dsimilar \u2064to Nixon&#8217;s\u200c aides. This could broaden the \u2064scope of the inquiry and potentially implicate more\u2063 individuals within the Biden\u200c administration.<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>The first impeachment inquiry hearing conducted by\u200c House Republicans has laid\u200b out \u2064the\u200c basis for proceeding with the proceedings. The focus has shifted from defending Hunter\u200d Biden&#8217;s actions to scrutinizing the involvement of Joe Biden in his son&#8217;s\u200c business deals. New evidence, including messages between Hunter Biden \u2063and \u2063his uncle\u2062 Jim Biden, further highlights the interconnectedness of \u200bthe Biden family&#8217;s \u2064finances. Republicans argue that even without direct payments to Joe Biden,\u2064 the evidence \u200bdemonstrates his knowledge and participation in these dealings. \u2064The \u2062role of \u2062Biden&#8217;s aides in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/facing-arrest-warrant-russias-putin-visits-annexed-crimea\/\" title=\"Facing arrest warrant, Russia's Putin visits annexed Crimea\">spreading misleading information<\/a> and\u2062 possibly obstructing Congress may also become relevant to\u2064 the case. The outcome of the\u200d impeachment inquiry will depend on whether\u200c Republicans can advance\u2064 their \u2063arguments without concrete proof of direct payments to \u2062Joe Biden. As the investigation continues, more evidence may come to light,\u2062 potentially implicating additional \u200dindividuals within the Biden administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Republicans held their initial impeachment inquiry hearing, presenting the grounds for commencing the proceedings. This followed the release of extensive evidence in the Hunter Biden investigation. Despite objections from Democrats supporting President Joe Biden, GOP representatives sought guidance from tax and legal specialists to elucidate their position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2049149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2049148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2049148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2049149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2049148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2049148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2049148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}