REPORT OF THE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Report of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability Committee on the Judiciary Committee on Ways and Means Prepared for the U.S. House of Representatives 118th Congress In accordance with H. Res. 918 August 19, 2024
2
E
XECUTIVE
S
UMMARY
The Constitution of the United States entrusts the House of Representatives with “the sole Power of Impeachment.”
1
When confronted with evidence that the President of the United States may have engaged in “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,”
2
it is the House’s responsibility to conduct an impeachment inquiry and, when appropriate, prepare articles of impeachment. In accordance with this obligation, and pursuant to direction from the House, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on Ways and Means have been conducting an inquiry to assess whether sufficient evidence exists that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. engaged in impeachable conduct.
3
As described in this report, the Committees have accumulated evidence demonstrating that President Biden has engaged in impeachable conduct. The Committees have prepared this report to inform the House on the evidence gathered to date. First and foremost, overwhelming evidence demonstrates that President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family. Among other aspects of this conspiracy, the Biden family and their business associates received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden. As Vice President, President Biden actively participated in this conspiracy by, among other things, attending dinners with his family’s foreign business partners and speaking to them by phone, often when being placed on speakerphone by Hunter Biden. For example, in 2014, Vice President Biden attended a dinner for Hunter Biden with Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina.
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Following the dinner, Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, a firm associated with Hunter Biden.
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Then, months later, as Hunter Biden and his business associates continued to solicit more money from Baturina, Vice President Biden participated in a phone call with Baturina and Hunter Biden where Vice President Biden told Baturina, “you be good to my boy.”
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Moreover, President Biden knowingly participated in this conspiracy. Based on the totality of the evidence, it is inconceivable that President Biden did not understand that he was taking part in an effort to enrich his family by abusing his office of public trust. The evidence also establishes that the Biden family went to great lengths to conceal this conspiracy. Foreign money was transmitted to the Biden family through complicated financial transactions. The Biden family laundered funds through intermediate entities and broke up large transactions into numerous smaller transactions. Substantial efforts were also made to hide President Biden’s involvement in his family’s business activities. Evidence obtained during the Committees’ impeachment inquiry also shows Hunter Biden and his business associates leveraged Vice President Biden’s official position to garner
1
U.S.
C
ONST
. Art. 1, § 2, cl. 5.
2
U.S.
C
ONST
. Art. 2, § 4.
3
H. Res. 918, 118th Cong. (2023); H. Res. 917, 118th Cong. (2023).
4
Transcribed Interview of Devon Archer, H. Comm. on Oversight & Accountability, at 58 (July 31, 2023) [hereinafter “Archer Interview”].
5
Transcribed Interview of Jason Galanis, H. Comm. on Oversight & Accountability & H. Comm. on the Judiciary, at 83–84 (Feb. 23, 2024) [hereinafter “Galanis Interview”].
6
Id.
at 11.
3 favorable outcomes in foreign business dealings and legal proceedings. Several witnesses testified that Hunter Biden invoked his father in business dealings with Romanian, Chinese, Kazakhstani, and Ukrainian companies, resulting in millions of dollars flowing to the Biden family. For example, around 2014, Hunter Biden explored starting a joint venture with Chinese businessman Henry Zhao and his company, Harvest Fund Management (Harvest), “a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party,”
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and when it appeared the deal may not materialize, he called his father for assistance.
8
Similarly, while Hunter Biden served on the board of directors of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma from 2014 to 2019, he utilized his father’s position to relieve pressure the company was under from a government investigation. In doing so, Vice President Biden changed U.S. policy in order to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee until Ukraine took government action to stop the investigation into the company affiliated with Hunter Biden. After leaving office, Joe Biden and his family continued their financial relationships with corrupt Chinese businessmen who would send the Bidens millions of dollars. President Biden’s participation in this conspiracy to enrich his family constitutes impeachable conduct. By monetizing the Vice Presidency for his family’s benefit, he abused his office of public trust, placing the welfare of his family ahead of the welfare of the United States. He also put foreign interests ahead of the interests of the American people. Indeed, precedent set by House Democrats in 2019 in their impeachment of President Donald J. Trump establishes that “abuse of office,” defined as the exercise of “official power to obtain an improper personal benefit, while ignoring or injuring the national interest,” is an impeachable offense.
9
Separately, the Committees have gathered evidence that President Biden used his official position to conceal his mishandling of classified information as a private citizen. During his tenure as Vice President, Joe Biden removed highly sensitive classified documents from the White House, despite having no authority to do so. Documents with classified markings were later found at the Penn Biden Center, at his personal residence in a garage, and at the University of Delaware.
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The report of Special Counsel Robert Hur detailed how President Biden willfully retained classified material, shared it with a ghostwriter who was unauthorized to receive classified information, and utilized the classified information to draft a memoir for which he received an $8 million advance.
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The Special Counsel’s report, as well as the Committees’ inquiry, disclosed how President Biden caused White House employees to conceal his conduct and mislead the American people about his actions.
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Finally, the Committees have obtained significant evidence that corroborates many of the allegations made by the IRS whistleblowers with respect to the Justice Department’s deviations
7
Id.
at 9-10.
8
Id.
at 10;
see also id.
at 88 (“[W]hat I overheard was looking for help to get it over the finish line, and the it was the Harvest investment into Burnham.”).
9
H.R.
R
EP
.
N
O
. 116-346, at 44 (2019).
10
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.,
at
19
(Feb.
2024)
[hereinafter “Hur Report”].
11
Id.
at 102.
12
See
generally
id
.