Biden impeachment: Republicans struggle to find evidence of wrongdoing

Republicans struggled to present any evidence of Joe Biden’s wrongdoing during Thursday’s hearing, which is part of the newly launched impeachment inquiry.

The hearings did not go well for Republicans, who control the US House of Representatives and claim Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings that may have led to bribery and corruption. They have been investigating this case for several months and still have not produced evidence linking the president to his son’s financial affairs. On Thursday they failed to do so again. Instead, the strategy appears to have been to lay the groundwork to justify a longer investigation.

All three Republican witnesses who testified Thursday admitted they had no first-hand knowledge of any criminal activity by Biden. Two of those witnesses, Jonathan Turley, a conservative law professor, and Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant, acknowledged that the information presented by the committee did not constitute corruption.

“I have previously stated that while I believe an impeachment investigation is warranted, I do not believe the evidence currently meets the high crime and misdemeanor standard required for an article of impeachment,” Turley said in testimony. However, Turley argued that there were signs of influence peddling and that the committee should investigate further.

Republicans were reportedly caught off guard by Turley’s conclusion, and an unnamed Republican aide told CNN that the hearing was a “total disaster” for their entire effort.

Thursday’s hearing by the House Oversight Committee was titled “Framework for the Impeachment Inquiry of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.” Another Republican witness was Eileen O’Connor, a former assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s tax division, who wrote in the Wall Street Journal criticizing the investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances. O’Connor served on Trump’s transition team at the Treasury Department in 2016, the Washington Post reports.