Alaska Rep. Mary Pelota voted in lockstep with her Democrat House colleagues to try to block a formal impeachment investigation into the corrupt history of President Joe Biden.
The U.S. House formalized the impeachment inquiry on a vote of 221-212, along party lines.
“We’re very pleased with the vote today. I think that’s it a message loud and clear to the White House. We expect you to comply,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said. He is leading one of the more interesting investigations.
“We are now at a pivotal moment in our investigation. We will soon depose and interview several members of the Biden family and their associates about these influence-peddling schemes. But we are facing obstruction from the White House,” Comer said. “The White House is seeking to block key testimony from current and former White House staff. It is also withholding thousands of records from Joe Biden’s time as vice president. President Biden must be held accountable for his lies, corruption, and obstruction. We have a duty to provide the accountability and transparency that Americans demand and deserve.”
Although an inquiry has been going on for several months, and there have been several committees investigating the president, this was the first official vote, taken in response to the White House, which has said that any requests for documents were invalid since there had been no floor vote.
Some of the documents wanted by committee members may relate to President Biden acting on Ukrainian matters with the goal of benefiting his son Hunter Biden, who was on the board of Burisma, a major Ukraine energy company.
Also on Wednesday, the president’s son, Hunter Biden, defied a subpoena to appear before the House for a deposition. Hunter Biden is also currently under indictment for tax fraud and firearm-and-drug-related charges.
On the House floor, Comer implored members to vote for the impeachment proceedings. He said that President Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people about his family’s corrupt influence-peddling schemes.
Biden lied when he told Americans he had never spoken to his son about his family’s business dealings, and claimed there was an “absolute wall” between his official government duties as the vice president and his family, Comer said.
“He said his family never made money from China. All of these are blatant lies. Our investigation has revealed how Joe Biden knew of, participated in, and benefited from his family cashing in on the Biden name around the world. Since January, we have learned some of the following: The Bidens created 20 shell companies – most of which were created when Joe Biden was Vice President. The Bidens and their associates then raked in over $24 million through these shell companies from China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania between 2014-2019. At least ten members of the Biden family benefited or participated in these schemes. The Bidens layered these payments through their bank accounts to hide the sources of the money. The banks even flagged many of these transactions in more than 150 suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Department,” Comer said.
“One bank investigator was so concerned about Hunter Biden’s financial transactions with the Chinese company that he wanted to re-evaluate the bank’s relationship with him. He noted that his transactions served ‘no current business purpose.’ According to Devon Archer, a Biden family associate, Joe Biden was THE BRAND of the business. The BRAND showed up. Joe Biden spoke to his son’s associates by speakerphone over 20 times, dined with foreign oligarchs and a Burisma executive, and had coffee with his son’s Chinese associate – all when he was Vice President,” Comer said.
“Weeks after Joe Biden left the vice presidency, money from this CCP-linked entity began to make its way to the bank accounts of several Biden family members. Based on one Biden associate’s interview with the FBI, these payments were sent to the Bidens as a ‘thank you.’ Ask any Justice Department public corruption investigator about the importance of payments received after one leaves public office. It’s a hallmark of corruption,” Comer said.
