Today is a big day for the House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The Oversight and Judiciary panels will hear from James Biden, the president’s brother, in a private deposition on the Hill.
Republican investigators see James Biden as critical to the impeachment inquiry. During his career, the president’s younger brother entered into a wide range of business deals that the GOP argues only went through because he was related to Joe Biden.
The impeachment inquiry has looked into James Biden’s former associates in recent months. But the vast majority of these figures have said Joe Biden had nothing to do with these financial deals.
The James Biden deposition and next week’s Hunter Biden interview come at a precarious time for the Republican-led inquiry. Last week, the impeachment push was dealt a major blow when an FBI informant who alleged a Biden bribery plot was indicted for making it all up.
While Republicans have insisted that the now-disproven Ukraine bribery allegation wasn’t the main focus of the impeachment inquiry, that’s a stretch. In reality, it formed a major part of the probe.
Remember: The inquiry is searching for any official acts in Biden took that were improperly impacted by his family’s business interests. To date, the probe has uncovered no conclusive evidence of impeachable offenses.
An interesting point to keep in mind today: It’s unlikely that James Biden will throw his brother under the bus and give Republicans any major revelations. So expect the GOP to try to discredit James Biden, catch him saying contradictory things or accuse him of stonewalling.
— Max Cohen
