Biden impeachment inquiry approval sets stage for likely court challenge, contempt charges

The GOP-led House's passage of the impeachment inquiry resolution against President Biden ramps up their investigation into the Biden family's foreign business dealings and prepares them for a court challenge, according to top Republicans. 

Lawmakers voted 221-212 along party lines on Wednesday to approve the resolution authorizing the inquiry.

House Republican leaders have said the Biden Administration and Hunter Biden have been refusing to cooperate with their investigation. 

The House Oversight and Accountability, Ways and Means, and Judiciary Committees have been investigating the president's potential role in his family members' foreign business dealings, including his son Hunter and brother James. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said there are more Biden associates that his committee wants to depose in addition to Hunter and James. 

"We’d love to have [Rob] Walker and [Eric] Schwerin and [Kevin] Morris and Jim Biden and then Hunter and then [Sally] Painter and [Karen] Tramontano. We’d love to have them probably in a sequence something like that," he said.

House Republicans have said the formal approval to open an impeachment inquiry would assist committees in getting key witnesses in to testify.

Republicans have been pushing for Hunter to do a private deposition but he has so far ignored the subpoena. 

Biden had said, through his attorney, that he would only testify publicly. Jordan and other House GOP leaders want a private deposition from Biden before any public hearing. 

Hunter came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to make a public statement critical of the investigation into his foreign business deals. He did not show up for a private deposition. 

"Let me state as clearly as I can, my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with the Chinese private businessman, not in my investments home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist."

Jordan and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said that the next move is to hold Hunter is contempt of Congress.

“Hunter Biden today defied lawful subpoenas and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,” said House Oversight Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan in a joint statement. “We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden.”

Comer said he doesn't know of "anyone in more trouble than Hunter Biden, and he just got in more trouble today."

Jordan told reporters recently that the formal impeachment vote would help fight a possible court challenge from the White House.

"We assume, at some point, there's going to be some challenge in court. We just think it helps you in court," Jordan said at a briefing with journalists.

Just ahead of the formal impeachment inquiry vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X that "the facts don’t lie" and "it’s time to get the American people answers."