White House Dodges Questions on Impeachment Inquiry, Hunter Biden Business Partner Testimony
Less than a week after the release of an FBI form alleging President Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe while serving as vice president, the White House won’t comment on a pending House impeachment inquiry.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also declined to comment on pending testimony to Congress by former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer.
On Tuesday, The Daily Signal asked Jean-Pierre about Archer’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee, and if the White House considers him a reliable witness.
Jean-Pierre replied, “I don’t have any comment on this.”
The president’s son told a federal judge in Delaware on Wednesday that he intended to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and to lying on a gun purchase form.
Archer is set to provide testimony to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on July 31.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has argued that with mounting evidence of influence peddling by the Biden family that appears to directly involve the president, the House should proceed with an impeachment inquiry.
An impeachment inquiry is an investigation into whether an official committed an impeachment offense.
Last week, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, released the FBI form FD-1023 that showed a confidential informant said that then-Burisma Holdings CEO Mykola Zlochevsky said he paid a $5 million bribe to Joe Biden and another $5 million bribe to Hunter Biden. The former head of the Ukrainian energy firm claimed the Bidens pressured him for the payment in order to help block an investigation into the company.
“Devon Archer’s testimony could add more evidence to open an impeachment inquiry,” said Paul Kamenar, counsel for the watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center.
Kamenar added that a formal impeachment inquiry could provide more legal tools to help the House obtain evidence.
“As for whether it’s better than an oversight hearing, it could be, with more resources devoted to it than a regular committee,” Kamenar said.
Two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers provided congressional investigators with compelling information about potentially corrupt Biden family business deals, and they were not even aware of the bribery allegation during the probe, noted Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., a member of the House Oversight Committee and chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.
“It’s also important to understand that these guys were acting on information they had available to them,” Palmer told The Daily Signal. “They did not have access to the FD-1023 form. I just wonder had they had that information, how that would have affected their recommendations.”
Asked earlier in the press briefing about McCarthy’s comment on an impeachment inquiry, Jean-Pierre said she wouldn’t speculate on what Republicans would or wouldn’t do.
The Daily Signal further asked: “On Speaker McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry comments, he seems to be making the point that he thinks there has been enough mounting evidence to at least have an inquiry. … Can you at least say whether you agree or disagree that there is enough mounting evidence for an inquiry?”
Jean-Pierre replied, “I’ve answered your colleagues on this question of what Speaker McCarthy is going to do or not going to do, how House Republicans are going to move forward. I just don’t have anything else to share.”
