House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday threatened an impeachment inquiry as early as next month if the Biden administration doesn’t submit documents that he says were requested by the GOP.
“The thing that holds up whether we do impeachment inquiry, provide us the documents we’re asking,” McCarthy told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow. “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,” he said.
The Republican leader’s comments suggest an impeachment investigation could be imminent depending on the Biden administration’s cooperation. McCarthy noted that the records the House is seeking deal with the flow of money, likely pertaining to the Biden family’s alleged overseas business corruption.
“If they hold that up, we would have to move to an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy said. “Which you know, Larry, gives 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.”
In the interview, McCarthy alluded to allegations that Biden was involved in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business ventures. Republicans are also keeping the pressure on the Hunter Biden tax-evasion case. Under the terms of an initial plea deal that later collapsed, Hunter was to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations and submit to a pre-trial diversion agreement to avoid a felony gun charge in exchange for broad immunity from future charges.
However, District Judge Maryellen Noreika challenged the terms of the deal in court last month, noting that the broad immunity that prosecutors offered Hunter Biden was unprecedented. The judge’s remarks triggered federal prosecutors to pull the original deal and offer a more narrow agreement. Last Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss to serve as special counsel to oversee the continued Hunter Biden investigation free of standard Department of Justice oversights. Weiss was tapped after two IRS whistleblowers claimed that Department of Justice leadership prevented him from aggressively prosecuting Hunter Biden.
McCarthy addressed this strange situation on Tuesday, also saying the House could pursue impeachment if Weiss doesn’t provide certain documents.
“Somebody is lying in this process,” he said. “And the only thing I realize here is the only stories that have not changed are the whistleblowers’ from the IRS. Their story has held up time and again, and it really looks like there’s two justice systems here. If the Biden administration continues to fight to withhold information that could really clear all this up. Did they take bribes? Did they deal in the business?”
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have, in recent months, uncovered extensive evidence of what they say is foreign influence-peddling by Hunter Biden. Last Wednesday, Republican representative James Comer, chairman of the committee, announced that the body had uncovered banking records indicating that shell companies linked to Hunter Biden and his business associates received a total of $20 million in payments from oligarchs in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine while his father was vice president.
On Thursday, Comer sent a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration requesting documents related to any official duties Joe Biden undertook while vice president that overlapped with Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.