Republicans Outline Impeachment Case in New Memo Detailing $24 Million Influence Peddling Scheme
House Republicans released a 30-page memo Thursday outlining the case for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The memo outlines the primary evidence gathered to date, which directly implicates President Biden in direct bribery schemes with foreign nationals while his son, Hunter, peddled political influence for tens of millions of dollars. The Biden family and their close associates, according to House investigators, accrued more than $24 million from foreign sources between 2014 and 2019. The money poured in from foreign business partners across Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania, and China, who often dished out millions “for no identifiable product or service.”
“This money was transmitted to Biden family members from foreign sources through an exceedingly complex chain of transactions that made it difficult to track the flow of these funds,” lawmakers noted. “These foreign business associates of the President’s family had interests in countries where then-Vice President Biden — and as President — played, and continues to play, an active role in formulating and implementing the foreign policy of the United States.”
Most notable was in Ukraine, where then-Vice President Biden served as the Obama administration’s point man while Hunter Biden was showered in excessive compensation for serving on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company. In January 2018, Joe Biden bragged about pressuring the Ukrainian government to fire the nation’s top prosecutor investigating his son’s firm, Burisma.
The Biden family’s arrangement with Burisma dominated four pages of the House memo outlining the case for an official inquiry. Lawmakers emphasized testimony from former Biden business partner Devon Archer, who said the product the Biden family was selling was a “brand” meant to intimidate the firm’s opponents. Shortly after the Ukrainian prosecutor was fired under pressure from Vice President Biden in 2016, Hunter Biden was a corporate signatory of a letter to the new prosecutor general that complained of government investigations into Burisma.
[Devon Archer: Burisma Hired Hunter Biden To Develop ‘Brand,’ Intimidate Opponents]
Beyond Burisma, House lawmakers identified similar transactions as evidence of illegal influence peddling that warrant the impeachment probe. While President Biden repeatedly denied any involvement in his son’s business ventures, at least 200 interactions with corporate partners have been documented.
“President Biden’s assertions that he never discussed business with his family are false,” the memo reads. “The Committees have accumulated significant evidence suggesting that President Biden knew of, participated in, and profited from his family’s international business activities.”
In 2014, Hunter Biden’s investment firm, Rosemont Seneca Thornton, received a $3.5 million wire from a Russian oligarch named Yelena Baturina. Around the time of the transfer, Baturina, the widow of an ex-Moscow mayor, had met with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Archer at one of Georgetown’s most famous restaurants, Café Milano.
“There is no evidence that Hunter Biden performed any legitimate service in exchange for the money that Baturina sent to companies affiliated with him,” lawmakers wrote.
Baturina, meanwhile, was omitted from U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarchs handed down in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Lawmakers also highlighted a $142,300 payment from a Kazakhstani oligarch. The amount matched the price of a sportscar purchased by Hunter Biden the very next day in New Jersey.
Romanian business associates separately poured more than $1 million into Biden family accounts for what the House Oversight Committee “has not identified legitimate services that would warrant these lucrative payments.”
Another six pages in the impeachment memo document suspicious payments from Chinese business leaders. The focus on China centers around a Chinese energy company, CEFC, with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When Joe Biden was vice president, Hunter Biden leveraged the White House affiliation to meet with CEFC leadership, who often bribed foreign officials for corporate favors. Biden family members ultimately raked in millions from Chinese businessmen for which lawmakers “can identify no legitimate services rendered” in return.
Rob Walker, a longtime Biden family associate, told the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in a 2020 interview that Joe Biden was directly involved in dealing with Chinese business leaders and met with officials from CEFC.
House lawmakers also highlighted the blockbuster revelations from IRS whistleblowers who claimed the Biden administration interfered in their investigation of Hunter Biden’s finances. The Justice Department slow-walked cooperation with federal tax agents and concealed critical evidence that implicated President Biden in bribery schemes.
“The information and evidence the Committees have gathered establishes a good faith basis to conclude that the President has been dishonest with the American people,” the House memo reads. “There is significant evidence that the President had involvement in his family’s foreign business entanglements and his Administration has taken steps to impede the criminal investigation into his family relating to those entanglements.”
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