在众议院共和党人誓言调查近两年后总统乔·拜登众议院司法、监督和筹款委员会周一公布了一份近300页的弹劾调查报告，其中充满了对总统的熟悉指控，总统已经宣布他不会寻求第二个任期。
这份报告于2005年11月11日发布民主党全国代表大会总统预定发表讲话的当天上午，共和党人重复了此前对拜登总统的许多指控，同时声称他们发现了“可弹劾的行为”。
但报告并未建议具体的弹劾条款;相反，它表示，下一步的决定将留给更大的国会机构。
报告中似乎没有什么新的爆炸性消息。该报告详细介绍了六项所谓的关键调查结果，指控拜登家族利用空壳公司从外国实体那里获得了2700万美元，800万美元的问题贷款，对亨特·拜登的特殊待遇以及白宫阻挠对总统的弹劾调查。
尽管这份报告非常详细，引用了大量文件和证词，但它很少(如果有的话)提供乔·拜登本人直接和故意参与非法或不当活动的实例——主要集中在他的儿子亨特·拜登和他的盟友以及总统的兄弟吉姆·拜登的行为上。
如果众议院共和党人着手起草弹劾条款，供众议院在9月9日国会复会时讨论，这份报告似乎将成为他们的路线图。
目前还不清楚下一步会是什么，包括弹劾条款是否会起草并正式推出。如果文章被介绍，众议院的一个委员会-可能是由吉姆·乔丹领导的司法机构-会将文章通过委员会提交众议院审议。尚不清楚议长迈克·约翰逊是否会在议会举行弹劾投票。几个月来，共和党人一直在犹豫是否要弹劾拜登，因为他们没有足够的票数来通过这项措施，许多人认为拜登的行为不值得弹劾。
国会在9月份只有三周的会期，休会直到2024年11月大选结束。值得注意的是，自从拜登放弃竞选连任以来，众议院共和党人已经将目光瞄准了新的假定民主党候选人，对副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯和州长蒂姆·瓦尔兹展开了新的调查。
报告中的一项关键指控称，詹姆斯·拜登和亨特·拜登从代表亨特·拜登的娱乐律师凯文·莫里斯那里获得了总计近800万美元的贷款;家庭朋友乔伊·兰斯顿;和汽车经销商约翰·海纳斯基。
绝大部分被指控的贷款(其中超过600万美元)来自莫里斯，据称他支付了亨特·拜登超过190万美元的纳税义务，帮助总统的儿子在加州威尼斯购买了一栋新房子，并雇佣了保安。但是，报告补充说，“莫里斯先生的财富允许他支付这些税收债务和亨特·拜登的其他债务，而不考虑还款的预期。”
该报告认为，莫里斯的经济援助“至少给人一种感觉，那就是存在一种不言而喻的交换条件或非法的竞选捐款，莫里斯可以借此消除亨特·拜登国税局的麻烦，进而帮助拜登竞选团队摆脱一项严重的责任，并获得一些回报。”
但是这份报告并没有提供任何直接证据证明拜登总统本人在这笔金融援助中有不当行为。
值得注意的是，在调查过程中，亨特·拜登的多名前助手告诉监督委员会，拜登总统没有参与亨特的商业交易。亨特·拜登的长期商业伙伴罗布·沃克(Rob Walker)在1月份的一次闭门采访中表示，拜登总统“从未参与”亨特·拜登的商业交易。“需要澄清的是，无论是在任期间还是作为一个普通公民，拜登总统从未参与我们所从事的任何商业活动。任何相反的说法都是错误的，”沃克在他的开场白中说。
报告还称，白宫阻止白宫官员作证，错误地主张行政特权，并限制查阅国家档案馆的材料，从而阻碍了委员会对拜登总统涉嫌保留机密文件的调查。
拜登涉嫌保留机密文件一事由特别顾问罗伯特·胡尔(Robert Hur)独立调查，他建议不要指控拜登。虽然Hur说他发现了拜登“故意保留和披露机密信息”的证据，但他认定这些指控是不正当的，因为“证据并没有在合理怀疑之外确立拜登先生的罪行。”
Hur决定不建议对拜登提出指控，部分原因是他发现拜登在陪审团面前会是一个“有同情心、善意、记忆力差的老人”，这是总统抨击的一个声明。
这份报告尖锐地批评了白宫对拜登采访Hur的音频主张行政特权，认为录音本身对于理解拜登的“精神状态”和总体罪责是必要的。DOJ为其不移交录音的决定进行了辩护，辩称录音是“累积的”，公布录音会妨碍证人未来的合作，从而损害“公正的司法”。
今年6月，众议院共和党人投票认定司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)藐视国会，因为他未能交出录音，尽管DOJ拒绝起诉加兰，原因是长期以来一直反对起诉司法部长。共和党领导的一项努力是对加兰未能交出录音磁带的固有蔑视，这将导致加兰每天被罚款1万美元，直到他遵守国会传票，这项努力在7月份失败。
House Republicans issue Biden impeachment report filled with familiar allegations
After nearly two years of House Republicans vowing to investigatePresidentJoe Bidenand his family's business dealings -- while repeatedly falling short in substantiating their most significant claims -- the House Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means Committees on Monday released a nearly 300-page impeachment inquiry report filled with familiar allegations against the president, who has already announced he will not seek a second term.
The report, released on the first day of theDemocratic National Conventionand the morning of the day the president is slated to speak, rehashes many of the allegations Republicans previously made against President Biden while alleging that they have uncovered "impeachable conduct."
However, the report does not recommend specific articles of impeachment; it instead says that the decision on the next steps will be left to the larger congressional body.
There appear to be no new bombshells in the report.The report details six so-called key findings alleging that the Biden family received $27 million from foreign entities using shell companies, $8 million in questionable loans, special treatment for Hunter Biden and White House obstruction of the impeachment inquiry into the president.
While the report is highly detailed and cites a wide array of documents and testimony, it provides few, if any, instances of Joe Biden himself being directly and knowingly involved in illegal or improper activities – mainly focusing on the actions of his son, Hunter Bidenand his allies, and the president'sbrother, Jim Biden.
The report appears toserveas a roadmap for House Republicans if they move to draft articles of impeachment for the House to then take up when Congress returns on Sept. 9.
It's not clear yet what the next steps will be, including if articles of impeachment will even be drafted and formally introduced. If articles are introduced, one of the House committees -- likely Judiciary led by Jim Jordan -- would then hold a markup to pass the articles out of committee for House floor consideration. It's not clear if Speaker Mike Johnson would hold an impeachment vote on the floor. Republicans have hesitated for months to move forward with impeaching Biden because they do not have enough votes to clear the measure, and many believe Biden's actions do not merit impeachment.
Congress is only in session for three weeks in September and out on recess until after the November 2024 election. Notably, since Biden has dropped his reelection bid, House Republicans have already trained their sights on the new presumptive Democratic ticket, launching fresh investigations into both Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz.
One of the key allegations in the report says that James Biden and Hunter Biden received a total of nearly $8 million in loans from entertainment attorney Kevin Morris, who represented Hunter Biden; family friend Joey Langston; and car dealer John Hynansky.
The vast majority of the alleged loans -- more than $6 million of it -- came from Morris, who allegedlypaid more than $1.9 million of Hunter Biden's tax liabilities, helped the president's son buy a new house in Venice, California, and hire security. But, the report added, "Mr. Morris's wealth allowed him to cover these tax debts and other debts for Hunter Biden without regard to expectation of repayment."
The report suggests Morris' financial assistance "creates the perception, at the very least, there was an unspoken quid pro quo or unlawful campaign contribution for which Mr. Morris would erase Hunter Biden's IRS troubles—and by extension, help the Biden campaign rid itself of a serious liability—and receive some benefit in return."
But the report does not provide any direct evidence of wrongdoing by PresidentBiden himself in relation to this financial assistance.
Notably, multipleprevious associates of Hunter Biden told the Oversight Committee over the course of the investigation that President Biden had no involvement with Hunter's business dealings. Rob Walker, a longtime business associate of Hunter Biden, said in a closed-door interview in January that President Biden "was never involved" in Hunter Biden's business dealings. "To be clear, President Biden -- while in office or as a private citizen -- was never involved in any of the business activities we pursued. Any statement to the contrary is simply false," Walker said in his opening statement.
The report also claimsthe White House obstructedthe Committees' investigation into President Biden's alleged retention of classified documents by preventing White House officials from testifying, erroneously asserting executive privilege and limiting access to materials from the National Archives.
Biden's alleged retention of classified documents was independently investigated by Special Counsel Robert Hur, who recommended against charging Biden. While Hur says hefound evidence that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified information," he determined that charges were not warranted because "evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."
Hur's decision to not recommend charges against Biden relied in part on his finding that Biden would come off as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" to a jury, a statement the president has slammed.
The report sharply criticized the White House for asserting executive privilege over the audio of Biden's interview with Hur, arguing that the recording itself was necessary to understand Biden's "mental state" and overall culpability. The DOJ defended its decision not to turn over the recordings by arguing the audio was "cumulative" and releasing them would harm "the evenhanded administration of justice" by preventing future cooperation from witnesses.
In June, House Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress over his failure to turn over the audio recordings, though the DOJ declined to prosecute Garland due to a longstanding policy against prosecuting an attorney general. A Republican-led effort to hold Garland in inherent contempt for his failure to turn over the audio tapes, which would have led to Garland being fined $10,000 per day until he complied with a congressional subpoena, failed in July.
