U.S. House Republicans launched their impeachment inquiry Thursday against President Joe Biden, saying they intend to "provide accountability" as they make their case to the public, their colleagues and skeptics.
House Republicans are trying to show what they say are links from the president to his son Hunter's previous overseas businesses, though key witnesses said they do not yet see hard evidence of impeachable offences.
Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair from Kentucky, said the lawmakers have "a mountain of evidence" that will show that the elder Biden "abused his public office for his family's financial gain."
The first of a promised continuing series of hearings comes as a potential federal government shutdown looms.
Democrats on the panel questioned the priorities of their colleagues across the aisle.
"We're 62 hours away from shutting down the government of the United States of America and Republicans are launching an impeachment drive, based on a long debunked and discredited lie," said Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the panel.
He said Republicans are rehashing five-year-old allegations from Donald Trump, first raised in 2019 during the former president's first impeachment, on his Ukraine pressure campaign.
'Where's Rudy?'
Raskin and others wondered aloud why Republicans haven't demonstrated interest in calling Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas as witnesses. Rep. Kweisi Mfume of Maryland at one point held up a "Where's Rudy?" sign.
Giuliani travelled throughout Europe and in Delaware, often at the behest of his former client Trump, to dig into Hunter Biden's business dealings.
Parnas, a Giuliani associate on some of this travels, recently accused Comer of pursuing a "false" narrative.
"Never, during any of my communications with Ukrainian officials or connections to Burisma, did any of them confirm or provide concrete facts linking the Bidens to illegal activities," Parnas wrote, referring to the energy company where Hunter Biden held a board seat.
Influence peddling evident: Republican witness
The hearing Thursday heard from outside experts in tax law, criminal investigations and constitutional legal theory.
Two Republican witnesses said there was currently no evidence that reached the level necessary for the standard of high crimes and misdemeanours.
A top Republican witness, Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University professor and expert in impeachment issues, said he believed the House had passed the threshold for an inquiry but that the current evidence was not enough to merit charges.
"I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment," said Turley.
Turley said there was a duty to launch an inquiry into what seemed like corrupt "influence peddling," though he allowed that such activities do not always rise to the level of law breaking.
Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant, told the hearing that nothing he's seen connects the president to illicit activities.
Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for years, since his father was vice-president. While there have been questions raised about the ethics around the family's international business, one former business partner of Hunter Biden has told House investigators the son was selling the "illusion of access" to his father.
Turley told the lawmakers the question remains, "Was the president involved?"
Impeachment trial not on the horizon
In the run-up to the hearing, Republicans unveiled a tranche of new documents and bank records that detail wire transfers from a Chinese businessman to Hunter Biden in 2019. Hunter Biden had listed his father's address on the wire transfer form, which Republicans say provided a clear link to the president.
Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said the address on the wire transfer, which he says was a loan, was listed to the president's Delaware home because it was the address on Hunter Biden's driver's licence and "his only permanent address at the time."
Hunter Biden has admitted, in interviews and a memoir, to a number of mistakes as he battled drug addiction.
House Republicans are also looking into the Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes and gun use that began in 2018. Two IRS whistleblowers came forward to Congress in the spring with claims that department officials thwarted their efforts to fully investigate Hunter Biden and that they faced retaliation when they pushed back.
The claims have since been disputed by the Department of Justice, the IRS and FBI agents who worked on the case. Lowell has sued the IRS on Hunter Biden's behalf for privacy breaches.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the impeachment inquiry this month, egged on by Trump and with mounting pressure from his right flank to take action or risk being ousted from his leadership job.
With a slim margin in the House, it's not clear Republicans have the votes to impeach Joe Biden should formal proceedings occur. And with Democrats holding the majority in the Senate, Biden's conviction and removal from office is a near impossibility.
