SARASOTA, Fla. — Florida Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, filed four articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden, all of which touch on the business dealings of the president's son, Hunter Biden, which continue to be a subject of investigation for the House GOP.
Though the hearings have thus far been unable to prove claims made by the GOP that Joe Biden profited from Hunter's business dealings while vice president, according to The Associated Press, Steube insisted what's been presented thus far was enough.
"The Biden Crime Family has personally profited off Joe's government positions through bribery, threats, and fraud," Steube said in a press release.
Steube, who called former President Donald Trump's first impeachment "nothing more than a political vendetta," defended his push to impeach President Biden in an interview with 10 Tampa Bay. "President Trump was impeached for a phone call to a foreign leader and the Democrats weaponized this process and one of the things that the Republicans said when we took the house back we weren't going to rush into the impeachment. We were going to get the information, get the evidence."
A staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, Steube is the second Republican to file impeachment articles against Biden. The first was Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert who accused Biden of "high crimes and misdemeanors" related to his handling of the U.S. border with Mexico. Boebert's resolution is currently under review with the House Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.
Steube's articles of impeachment were filled with accusations of the president being involved in "fraud," "bribery" and "financial involvement in drug and prostitution," but many of the charges appeared to misrepresent what the Hunter Biden investigation had found.
Article 1 - Abuse of Power
Steube alleged that Hunter and James Biden "sold access" to Joe Biden during his time as vice president and claimed that Joe Biden "assisted" by meeting with "foreign and domestic business partners."
This contradicts testimony from Hunter Biden's former business partner Dan Archer. According to a transcript of the interview, Archer said the "Biden" name was important to the Ukrainian-based energy company, Burisma, and its "brand" but to his knowledge, Joe Biden had no direct involvement with Burisma or its dealings.
Similarly, Burisma co-founder Mykola Zlochevsky stated in a 2019 interview with the House Committee that "no one from Burisma ever had any contacts with V.P. Biden or people working for him during Hunter's engagement."
Much was made of Hunter Biden selling the "illusion of access" to his famous father. According to Archer, Hunter Biden would sometimes put his father on speaker phone while at meetings with business associates, but none of those conversations ever involved the "substance" of Hunter's business. Instead, Archer said they consisted of, "Say, where are you, how's the weather, how's the fishing, how's the — whatever — but, you know, it was very, you know, casual conversations."
Earlier this week, some Republicans claimed they had a "smoking gun" tying Joe Biden to Hunter Biden's transactions in the form of bank records belonging to members of Biden's family. They claimed the records offered "concrete proof" that the Bidens took millions of dollars in money from foreign oligarchs. However, according to members of the committee, the records offer no evidence that Joe Biden was directly involved in any of the transactions, though some GOP leaders have claimed they don't need to.
As of yet, no evidence or testimony has established direct involvement by Joe Biden in Burisma or any of Hunter Biden's other dealings.
Article 2 - Obstruction of Justice
Steube cites "testimony from IRS whistleblowers" in claiming members of the Biden campaign "improperly colluded" with the Justice Department to "interfere" with investigations into Hunter Biden's tax crimes.
The testimony from the IRS whistleblowers featured no such claims. They did claim that the agency "slow-walked" investigative steps into Hunter Biden's tax crimes, however, this occurred in 2020, during the Trump administration.
They also claimed that federal prosecutor David Weiss asked for special counsel status while leading the investigation into Hunter Biden for Trump's DOJ and was denied. Weiss himself denied this claim. Additionally, Biden kept Weiss on the Hunter Biden case after he won the 2020 election. Attorney General Merrick Garland officially made Weiss a special counsel in the investigation on Aug. 11, 2023.
Article 3 - Fraud
Steube claims "there is evidence" to suggest that Joe Biden's brother James used "access to Joe Biden and indication that Joe Biden supported" James' business ventures to sell them to potential investors.
According to reporting from CNN, James Biden's business associates have said on record that James touted his family connection with his brother while trying to attract investors for his business ventures.
However, none of the associates claimed that Joe Biden himself was ever involved in this, nor does Steube offer any evidence directly implicating the president.
Article 4 - Financial Involvement in Drug And Prostitution
Steube claims that both Joe and Hunter Biden have a "long history" of intertwined finances and that "thousands of dollars" of Biden family money was spent on illegal drug transactions and prostitution.
This appears to refer to a court statement made by Hunter Biden's estranged wife saying that Hunter, a recovering addict, had wasted their money on drugs and prostitutes while leaving her family with "no funds to pay legitimate bills."
Joe Biden was a private citizen in 2018 and 2019 when, according to reports that cited records from Hunter Biden's laptop, he had wired money to help Hunter pay outstanding bills and to enter a rehabilitation program. While the records show that Hunter was spending money on drugs and prostitution at the time, there is no indication that Joe Biden knew where the money he sent his son was going, nor any evidence that he was directly involved in financing drugs or prostitution.