House votes to formalize Republican impeachment inquiry into Biden

Republicans voted to formalize their ongoing impeachment inquiry into whether President Joe Biden was connected to or profited from his son Hunter's shady business deals. 

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.

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 subpoenaed Hunter along with James Biden, Joe's brother, for testimony last month. And Hunter was supposed to appear at 9.30am Wednesday for his scheduled closed-door deposition.  

But the president's son gave a dramatic five-minute address on Capitol Hill defending his father and explaining the struggles he's had with his crack cocaine addiction while slamming Republicans for taking advantage of his situation.

Hunter then sped off in an Escalade away from the room where he was supposed to give closed-door deposition, violating the terms of the subpoena.

The National Archives has handed tens of thousands of documents over to House Republicans. 

The DOJ, FBI, IRS and National Archives have made nine witnesses available to discuss ongoing investigations and the Treasury Department has made 2,000 pages of suspicious activity reports available. 

The Oversight Committee has also obtained and pored over 37,000 pages of bank records and hours of whistleblower testimony. 

But Republicans insist there is more to see. 

They are, for example, demanding more information on the 82,000 emails Joe Biden sent using a pseudonym, related to both official and family business. 

They are also looking for more information on Hunter's 2014 and 2015 taxes - which Special Counsel David Weiss admitted the statute of limitations had been allowed to expire on Hunter's failure to pay taxes on $1 million in income from Burisma. 

'So now you've got the indictments on nine counts last week, none of those about 2014, 15 which was -- that's a really important year for respect to the vice presidency.' 

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. 

They also point to testimony from Hunter associate Devon Archer, who said Joe Biden was in contact with Hunter's business partners around 20 times over 10 years - either on the phone or at dinners. 

Hunter Biden gave an emotional five-minute address to the press where he admitted, 'in the depths of my addiction I was extremely irresponsible with my finances.'

But, he said, '[Republicans] have taken the light of my dads love for me and presented it as darkness.' Hunter said his dad had never been involved in any of his business ventures. 

'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 at home and abroad and certainly not as an artist.'