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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy warned Tuesday that the lower chamber could open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden when the House reconvenes in September if the administration isn’t more forthcoming with documents related to his family’s overseas business dealings and allegations that he accepted bribes as vice president.
The California Republican told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Tuesday that whether or not a congressional investigation into the possibility of impeaching the 80-year-old president is opened sometime after the House is gaveled back into session on Sep. 12 is wholly up to Biden.
“The thing that holds up whether we do impeachment inquiry, provide us the documents we’re asking,” McCarthy said. “The whole determination here is how the Bidens handled this.”
“If they provide us the documents, there wouldn’t be a need for impeachment inquiry. But if they withhold the documents and fight like they have now to not provide to the American public what they deserve to know, we will move forward with impeachment inquiry when we come back into session,” the House speaker added.
McCarthy demanded that the president furnish Congress with documents that show he did not accept a $5 million bribe from Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, as alleged by an FBI informant in June of 2020; talk to his son, Hunter Biden, about his overseas influence peddling operation; or accept foreign money from foreign nationals.
“Why can’t we get the documents to prove that you’re not being bribed, that you didn’t get foreign money directly in, that you didn’t talk to your son?” McCarthy said. “But what we found now is that the things that then Vice President Biden running for president told the American public is not true, and he’s now had to change what he said.”
McCarthy explained that opening an impeachment inquiry would give the “apex of power to Congress when it comes to our subpoena power and others to get the documents we need. The bank statements, the credit card statements and others.”
“Show us where the money went, show us were you taking money from outside sources? And that would clear most of this up, but they seem to fight it every step of the way,” he added.
McCarthy also warned that if David Weiss, the Delaware US attorney leading the Justice Department’s investigation into Hunter Biden, refuses to testify before Congress or hand over documents related to his probe, it would also spur an impeachment inquiry.
Earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland granted Weiss special counsel authority, and Republican lawmakers have argued that his new powers will essentially prevent Weiss from disclosing any relevant information about his investigation.
“If they use this special counsel to say that they can’t provide us the information, then it just shows more politics. And it will not stop us,” McCarthy told Kudlow. “Then we would move to impeachment inquiry, and we would be able to still get the documents that we need as we move forward.”
In July, before Weiss’ appointment as special counsel, the Justice Department informed House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that it was “ready to offer U.S. Attorney Weiss to testify shortly after Congress returns from the August district work period.”
Jordan and the heads of two other Republican-led committees had demanded testimony from Weiss and 10 other Justice Department officials in relation to IRS whistleblower allegations of a coverup in the government’s probe into the 53-year-old first son’s alleged tax and gun crimes.