White House demands Speaker Johnson ‘move on’ from Biden impeachment inquiry
The White House Counsel’s Office called on the House speaker Friday to “move on” from the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Biden, citing tepid remarks from Republicans about its progress and inconclusive witness testimony.
In a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), White House Counsel’s Ed Siskel declared that the impeachment was “over” and the evidence that three House GOP committees have collected from bank records and witnesses prove Biden, 81, “did nothing wrong.”
“Instead of admitting the truth that the President did nothing wrong, the Majority is wasting even more time on abusive steps like trying to re-interview witnesses who already testified — perhaps hoping the facts will be different the second time around,” Siskel wrote in the missive, which White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams he later posted on X.
Siskel described the callbacks as “the latest abusive tactic” pursued by Republican investigators after having targeted members of the first family — at least nine of whom received money from foreign business deals — and “intruded into private citizens’ personal records.”
“Enough is enough. It is obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker. This impeachment is over,” Siskel said. “There is too much important work to be done for the American people to continue wasting time on this charade.”
“Important priorities like funding our ally Ukraine and passing bipartisan border security measures are not getting the attention they deserve because House Republicans are distracted by this divisive political sideshow.”
“It is not surprising that the White House would prefer to close the ongoing House inquiry which has uncovered that the Biden family and their associates received over $20 million from foreign sources, and that President Biden has lied repeatedly,” deputy Johnson chief of staff Raj Shah fired back.
“The White House does not get to decide how impeachment gets resolved, that is for Congress to decide.”
Siskel pointed to comments from House Republicans who stated that the impeachment inquiry — led by the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees — has turned up no evidence of a crime.
He also blamed the inquiry for the departure of Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), a firm opponent of the House impeachment push against Biden and the impeachment last month of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Oversight and Judiciary panels have obtained thousands of bank records and interviewed more than 20 witnesses, including former business partners of first son Hunter Biden — several of whom testified that the president took phone calls and meetings with foreign associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia — despite denials issued during his 2020 presidential campaign.
Some of the witnesses — who were formerly in business with the first son — are convicted fraudsters, while others who were not witnesses but produced evidence to committees have been federally indicted and have alleged ties to China and Russian intelligence.
Several of those meetings came before seven-figure payments from the associates went to Hunter and first brother James Biden, including a more than $5 million deal with a Chinese state-linked energy firm in 2017.
Devon Archer, one of Hunter’s partners, told lawmakers last year that phone calls with other associates had also been made to promote the Biden “brand.”
The Ways and Means panel also disclosed testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who alleged a cover-up by the Justice Department during a five-year investigation into the first son for alleged tax fraud and gun charges.
Attorneys for Hunter Biden walked away from a probation-only plea deal last July, but the first son was later federally indicted on those charges and will head to trial in June.
In one notable whistleblower disclosure, Hunter sent a threatening text message to a Chinese associate in July 2017 that he was “sitting here with my father” and demanded to know why a “commitment” had yet to be fulfilled.
Last month, Hunter and James Biden told committee members that the president was never involved financially or otherwise in their foreign business dealings and took no official action as vice president that benefited them.
The first son said during his transcribed deposition that he had been “drunk and probably high” when he sent the message to the wrong associate and that his father had not been in the room.
Johnson, 52, characterized those depositions as “fairly evasive” and “demonstrably untrue based upon the bank records and some of the evidence, whistleblower testimony, that’s come forward” in an interview with The Post.
The speaker stopped short, however, of accusing the first son of perjury, saying he did not believe “Hunter Biden shared the whole truth” and that he would “let people draw their own conclusions.”
Johnson also said the House will not hold a vote to impeach the president until the committees finish their investigation.
“I think there’s still some additional evidence that has not been turned over,” he added.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) earlier this week said he would seek further testimony from an ex-prosecutor in special counsel David Weiss’ office, Lesley Wolf, who told IRS investigators to not pursue lines of questioning that could lead to Biden.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has also called for a March 20 public hearing with Hunter and his former business associates, including Archer and Jason Galanis — both of whom were convicted of selling bogus tribal bonds as part of a venture also linked to the first son — and Tony Bobulinski, who first alleged in October 2020 that the Biden family tried to cash in on the president’s name abroad.
Meanwhile, Hunter is scheduled to head to trial in Delaware June 3 on weapons charges.
His Los Angeles trial for evading $1.4 million in tax payments between 2016 and 2019 is set to begin June 20.
Correction note: This article initially said the letter to Johnson was written by White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams.
