Current:Home > NewsWhite House encourages House GOP to ‘move on’ from Biden impeachment effort -InvestTomorrow
White House encourages House GOP to ‘move on’ from Biden impeachment effort
View
Date:2025-04-13 19:00:54
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s top White House lawyer is encouraging House Speaker Mike Johnson to end his chamber’s efforts to impeach the president over unproven claims that Biden benefited from the business dealings of his son and brother.
White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a Friday letter to Johnson that testimony and records turned over to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees have failed to establish any wrongdoing and that even Republican witnesses have poured cold water on the impeachment effort. It comes a month after federal prosecutors charged an ex-FBI informant who was the source of some of the most explosive allegations with lying about the Bidens and undisclosed Russian intelligence contacts.
“It is obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker,” Siskel wrote. “This impeachment is over. There is too much important work to be done for the American people to continue wasting time on this charade.”
The rare communique from the White House counsel’s office comes as Republicans, their House majority shrinking ever further with early departures, have come to a near-standstill in their Biden impeachment inquiry.
Johnson has acknowledged that it’s unclear if the Biden probe will disclose impeachable offenses and that “people have gotten frustrated” that it has dragged on this long.
But he insisted as he opened a House Republican retreat late Wednesday in West Virginia that the “slow and deliberate” process is by design as investigators do the work.
“Does it reach the ‘treason, high crimes and misdemeanor’ standard?” Johnson said, referring to the Constitution’s high bar for impeachment. “Everyone will have to make that evaluation when we pull all the evidence together.”
Without the support from their narrow ranks to impeach Biden, the Republican leaders are increasingly eyeing criminal referrals to the Justice Department of those they say may have committed potential crimes for prosecution. It is unclear to whom they are referring.
Still, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is marching ahead with a planned hearing next week despite Hunter Biden’s decision not to appear. Instead, the panel will hear public testimony from several former business partners of the president’s son.
Comer has also been looking at legislation that would toughen the ethics laws around elected officials.
Without providing evidence or details, Johnson said the probe so far has unearthed “a lot of things that we believe that violated the law.”
While sending criminal referrals would likely be a mostly symbolic act, it could open the door to prosecutions of the Bidens in a future administration, particularly as former President Donald Trump has vowed to take revenge on his political detractors.
veryGood! (66)
Related
- Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
- Asteroid Apophis has the tiniest chance of hitting earth in 2029 – on a Friday the 13th
- Don Lemon, life after CNN and what it says about cancel culture
- 'Like a bomb going off': Video captures freight train smashing through artillery vehicle
- Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
- Congo court sentences 3 Americans and 34 others to death on coup charges
- Meet Little Moo Deng, the Playful Baby Hippo Who Has Stolen Hearts Everywhere
- Actors and fans celebrate the ‘Miami Vice’ television series’ 40th anniversary in Miami Beach
- Olympic disqualification of gold medal hopeful exposes 'dark side' of women's wrestling
- Conservancy, landlord headed to mediation amid ongoing rent dispute for historic ocean liner
Ranking
- Can Bill Belichick turn North Carolina into a winner? At 72, he's chasing one last high
- Lil Wayne feels hurt after being passed over as Super Bowl halftime headliner. The snub ‘broke’ him
- A river otter attacks a child at a Seattle-area marina
- Tiger Woods undergoes another back surgery, says it 'went smothly'
- Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
- Air Canada urges government to intervene as labor dispute with pilots escalates
- Megan Rapinoe wants Colin Kaepernick to play flag football in 2028 LA Olympics
- 'Like a bomb going off': Video captures freight train smashing through artillery vehicle
Recommendation
Connie Chiume, South African 'Black Panther' actress, dies at 72
Modern Family’s Julie Bowen Reveals What Her Friendship With Sofia Vergara Is Really Like
Dogs bring loads of joy but also perils on a leash
Minnesota election officials make changes to automatic voter registration system after issues arise
Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
What Bachelorette Jenn Tran and Devin Strader Have Revealed About the Thorny Details of Their Breakup
Pennsylvania high court rules against two third-party candidates trying for presidential ballot
Canadian man admits shootings that damaged electrical substations in the Dakotas