'Move on': White House urges Mike Johnson to end impeachment investigation into Joe Biden
WASHINGTON ― The White House argued it's time for House Republicans to end their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in a Friday letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., saying their long investigation hasn't turned up wrongdoing by the president.
"It is obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker. This impeachment is over," White House counsel Edward Siskel wrote in his first letter to the speaker since House Republicans began investigating the Biden family more than 14 months ago. "There is too much important work to be done for the American people to continue wasting time on this charade."
Siskel said interviews with more than 20 witnesses and 100,000 pages of records in House Republicans' investigation have failed to prove their unsubstantiated claims that Biden was involved in his son Hunter Biden's business dealings and benefited financially through his family's foreign transactions.
“For over a year, House Republicans have been investigating President Biden in an effort to find something – anything – to hurt the President politically. Instead, the investigation has continually turned up evidence that, in fact, the President did nothing wrong," the letter reads.
The House Oversight Committee, which is leading the impeachment inquiry, was dealt a setback last month when former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, whose story was central to Republicans' bribery claims, was indicted and charged with lying about the Bidens' business dealings.
Smirnov had contact with Russian intelligence services, prosecutors say. He is being held in jail before trial and has pleaded not guilty.
"This impeachment inquiry in large part has been based on allegations made by troubling sources, as recent developments have made clear," Siskel claimed, singling out Smirnov and a separate informant, Gal Luft, who was indicted last year on allegations he brokered illegal Iranian arms deals and served as an unregistered Chinese agent.
More recently, a long-awaited deposition from Hunter Biden failed to produce the blockbuster testimony Republicans hoped for, with the president's son disputing the central premise of the impeachment case ? that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in his overseas business dealings.
Johnson's office pushed back at the White House's call to end the impeachment inquiry.
“It is not surprising that the White House would prefer to close the ongoing House inquiry which has uncovered that the Biden family and their associates received over $20 million from foreign sources, and that President Biden has lied repeatedly," Raj Shah, Johnson's deputy chief of staff, said in a statement. "The White House does not get to decide how impeachment gets resolved, that is for Congress to decide.”
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has outlined next steps for the impeachment inquiry, demanding that a public hearing take place next for lawmakers to question Hunter Biden. It's an opportunity the president's son previously requested but recently declined.
Siskel said that instead of admitting that Biden "did nothing wrong," House Republicans are wasting time by trying to re-interview witnesses who already testified "perhaps hoping the facts will be different the second time around."
He called it "just the latest abusive tactic in this investigation" that has targeted Biden's children, grandchildren, siblings and in-laws. "It has intruded into private citizens’ personal records on everything from medical visits to birthday presents," Siskel said. "Enough is enough."
Siskel said priorities such as securing funding for Ukraine and passing bipartisan legislation to address the southern border "are not getting the attention they deserve because House Republicans are distracted bythis divisive political sideshow."
Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: White House tells Mike Johnson to 'move on' from Joe Biden impeachment
