The 221-212 party-line vote opens the door for the GOP to get more evidence about schemes that have seen the Biden family get millions from countries including China, Ukraine and Romania.
And the Bidens will now have more of their bank records, mortgage details, emails, text messages and mobile phones subpoenaed, along with anything else Congress wants to see.
Since the start of 2023, Republicans have been investigating Joe Biden over his alleged connections to his son Hunter’s extremely lucrative multi-million dollar influence peddling scheme spanning decades.
With a formal impeachment inquiry vote, Republicans say the White House can no longer stonewall them for requested documents and depositions. But top GOP leaders have argued it wasn’t necessary.
‘You do not need a full vote of the House to do an impeachment inquiry to do the investigation that we’re constitutionally obligated to do,’ GOP Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told DailyMail.com ahead of the vote.
‘But they’re blocking witnesses from testifying, the National Archives is withholding thousands of documents,’ he claimed.
And the White House is ‘not going to acknowledge or recognize these subpoenas without a vote,’ continued Emmer.
He said that new Speaker Mike Johnson when faced with that fact said, “Well, if we’re gonna have to go to court to get these enforced anyway, you might as well eliminate any objection that they have,’ Emmer continued.
Speaker Johnson and his leadership team applauded the House for taking a ‘critical step in our investigation’ with approving the impeachment inquiry.
‘As President Biden continues to stonewall lawful Congressional subpoenas, today’s vote of the full House of Representatives authorizing the inquiry puts us in the strongest position to enforce these subpoenas in court,’ Johnson, Emmer, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and GOP Chair Elise Stefanik said in a joint statement.
President Biden slammed the ‘baseless’ House Republican impeachment ‘stunt’ in a statement following the vote.
He said there is a lot of work Congress needs to get done – including authorizing additional funding to Ukraine, Israel and the southern border.
‘There is a lot of work to be done. But after wasting weeks trying to find a new Speaker of the House and having to expel their own members, Republicans in Congress are leaving for a month without doing anything to address these pressing challenges,’ said the president.
‘Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,’ Biden continued.
The vote came just hours after Republicans moved to start proceedings to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress when he defied their subpoena.
Republicans are probing the extent to which Joe Biden was involved in his son’s overseas business dealings. They point to Biden pressuring Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin – who was investigating Burisma and who he accused of corruption.