Hunter Biden’s woes, and a new impeachment saga, will go on and on
Editor’s note: This story has been updated following Kevin McCarthy’s announcement of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
What does it take to create a “culture of corruption”? In the case of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s wayward son, and his business dealings when his father was vice-president, many of the ingredients are there: large sums of money, questionable foreign companies, a powerful father with influence over those companies’ fate. After years of investigation, however, what is still missing, so far, is any proof that these really did mature into a scandal in the Petri dish. That did not deter Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House, from announcing the start of impeachment inquiries into President Biden on September 12th. That “culture” of corruption, he said, warrants further investigation. The chance of a conviction of the president is almost nil. But the hearings will tie up Congress for months.
Mr McCarthy’s announcement came in response to pressure from right-wing members of his wafer-thin majority, who have long been pressing for impeachment. But it also builds on months of Republican noise about Hunter Biden. On August 28th the Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), a Republican-aligned legal charity based in Georgia, announced it is suing the National Archives and Records Administration to try to force it to release 5,138 emails the archivists have identified as having come from three email addresses Joe Biden used with pseudonyms, such as “Robin Ware” and “Robert L. Peters”. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who has been probing Hunter Biden’s activities since January, had already requested in mid-August that the emails be released to him.
2023-09-11 15:49:09
Link from www.economist.com
rnrn