Jordan: House moving forward with Biden impeachment inquiry vote ahead of possible court challenge

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan detailed some of the next steps in the impeachment investigation against President Joe Biden, telling reporters on Monday that a formal impeachment inquiry vote would help fight a potential court challenge.

"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 on the status of his committee's impeachment probe involving the Biden family's foreign business dealings and whether the president benefited from them. Jordan said he "hoped the House would vote as soon as possible" and possibly as early as this week. 

"You don't need it. In the Constitution, you can start an impeachment inquiry based on what we're doing," he added. "But it always helps if the full House of Representatives is on record."

Jordan noted that Jonathan Turley, a professor of Constitutional Law at George Washington University Law School has said there should be a formal vote taken in the House.

"He thinks it helps if you have an official vote as well so we think we should take a vote to really try to get these last key witnesses in, now that the bank documents are coming in," he said. "Now that we have [Devin] Archer under oath and we have his deposition and we put together these facts and we're learning more and more over time."

Jordan said passing an impeachment inquiry resolution will help House Republicans take depositions from Hunter Biden's business associates including his uncle James Biden and associates Tony Bobulinski and Rob Walker.

Hunter said through his lawyer that he is only willing to testify in public but Jordan explained why House Republicans want a private deposition before any public hearing takes place.

"We want him to come public. I'd love to have him on the witness stand," he said in response to a question from Just the News. "But we do think it's important to do the private depositions first and we would love a sequence to it. 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."

Jordan pointed out that Donald Trump Jr., former President Donald Trump’s son, had sat for depositions in two separate committees.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Saturday that he thinks the votes are there to approve a formal impeachment inquiry.

Jordan emphasized that testimony from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler regarding the IRS' Hunter Biden investigation has held up over time. Shapley testified that higher-ups at the Justice Department interfered in the investigation rather than letting it play out.

"Their story has not changed," Jordan said. "Their testimony has stood up."

Jordan also told reporters that none of the 8 individuals brought in for depositions so far have refuted Shapley or Ziegler's testimony.

"I think, but for these two guys and the judge in Delaware, they would've gotten away with it," he said, referencing Biden’s Justice Department.

"I think it's easy to see the story through Burisma and then what they tried to do at the Department of Justice in their now ongoing special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden. But I think the Bidens decided to keep doing it," he also said, referring to further involvement in foreign business deals after Biden's time as vice president.

He continued, saying, "Once Joe Biden leaves office, they keep it up and we're seeing that with what Mr. Comer has brought forward, relative to the CEFC, the Chinese energy company and the loan repayment and the $40,000 check."

In 2018, Northern International Capital, the CEFC affiliate, had wired $5 million to Hunter Biden's company  Hudson West III.

Hunter Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, and the White House both insist that “there’s no new evidence to be found."