US House launches Republican impeachment inquiry against Biden

Joe Biden has reacted after the US House of Representatives voted to open a formal impeachment inquiry based on his son’s international dealings.

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives has voted to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden based on his son’s controversial international dealings – a move Biden himself slammed as a “baseless” stunt.

Republicans have yet to provide evidence of corruption by the president, and the Democratic-led Senate would be unlikely to convict the US leader even if the inquiry did lead to an actual impeachment trial.

Regardless, the procedure guarantees Republicans a new, high-profile platform to attack Mr Biden as he campaigns for re-election in 2024 – and to distract from the federal criminal trials facing his almost certain challenger Donald Trump.

The vote of 221 to 212 was along strict party lines, with every Republican voting for it and every Democrat against.

Conservatives accuse Mr Biden’s troubled son Hunter of influence-peddling – effectively trading on the family name in pay-to-play schemes during his business dealings in Ukraine and China.

US President Joe Biden says he is being attacked “with lies”. Picture: AFP

The allegations against Hunter Biden refer to incidents that took place before his father became president, and the White House has stressed there has been no wrongdoing.

Mr Biden himself responded immediately after the vote, accusing Republicans of stalling on a multitude of key fronts while obsessing over a desire to score political points against a president running for re-election in 2024.

“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Mr Biden said in a lengthy statement.

“Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”

Republicans for their part insist the work has merit.

“As President Biden continues to stonewall lawful Congressional subpoenas, today’s vote of the full House of Representatives authorising the inquiry puts us in the strongest position to enforce these subpoenas in court,” said House Republican Elise Stefanik a member of party leadership.

BIDEN’S SON SPLURGED ON DRUGS, WOMEN

Hunter Biden has been hit with new criminal charges for failing to pay his taxes, with prosecutors alleging he instead splurged millions of dollars including on drugs and women.

The bombshell case means Hunter – who is already facing gun charges – could go on trial twice next year while his father runs for re-election and fights off a Republican effort to impeach him.

Special counsel David Weiss, who has been spearheading a five-year investigation of Hunter, alleged in an indictment approved by a Californian grand jury that he “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $US1.4m ($A2.1m)” in taxes from 2016 to 2019.

Mr Weiss alleged Hunter had instead “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle”.

According to the 56-page indictment, this included $US683,212 ($1m) in payments to women, $US188,960 ($A286,004) on adult entertainment and $US397,530 ($A601,689) on clothing and accessories, plus another $US1.6m ($A2.4m) in ATM cash withdrawals.

“In short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment said.

US President Joe Biden, with son Hunter Biden, in February this year. Picture: AFP

Hunter has since been open about his drug addiction, writing in his memoir that in 2018, he used crack cocaine “24 hours a day, smoking every 15 minutes, seven days a week”.

He recalled spending five months in California with “thieves, junkies, petty dealers, over-the-hill strippers, con artists, and assorted hangers-on”.

“I never slept … Day bled into night and night into day,” he wrote, recalling how he stayed at luxury hotels around California with the “merry band of crooks, creeps, and outcasts”.

“They’d drink up the entire minibar, call room service for filet mignon and a bottle of Dom Perignon. One of the women even ordered an additional fillet for her purse-sized dog.”

Hunter Biden has been hit with new criminal charges for failing to pay taxes.

Mr Weiss seized on these admissions in the indictment, alleging that Hunter claimed $US388,810 ($A588,490) in business travel that year “despite having done little to no business”.

He also accused Hunter of putting three women with whom he had sexual relationships on his payroll to reduce his tax burden. One of those women was pregnant with his child.

And Mr Weiss alleged the president’s son falsely represented wire transfers as business expenses, when they were actually used to cover personal expenses such as a $US10,000 ($A15,135) sex club membership, and tapped his business line of credit for purchases including $US27,316 ($A41,344) in payments on an online pornography website.

He has been charged with three counts each of evading a tax assessment, failing to file and pay taxes, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return.

He is also facing separate charges over his alleged failure to acknowledge his drug use when he purchased a gun in 2018.

Earlier this year, Hunter appeared to be on the verge of a plea deal that would have wrapped up the lengthy probe into his affairs and helped him avoid jail.

But the deal collapsed amid widespread political pressure and claims that the Justice Department had negotiated a sweetheart deal for the President’s son. Mr Weiss was then appointed as an independent special counsel.

- with AFP

Originally published as US House launches Republican impeachment inquiry against Biden