WSJ Editorial Board: There Is Evidence for an Impeachment Inquiry

WASHINGTON—The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board published a piece emphasizing the importance of opening an impeachment inquiry in the wake of mounting evidence of Joe Biden’s abuse of public office. The Editorial Board points to the evidence unearthed by the House Oversight Committee, which reveals Joe Biden knew and was involved in his family’s influence peddling schemes around the world that enriched the Biden family.

Say this for the Biden White House: It knows its media audience. It was thus no surprise that after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the opening of an impeachment inquiry this week, White House spokesman Ian Sams gave the press its marching orders.

“It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an inquiry based on lies,” he wrote in a memo to news outlets. Much of the press proceeded to report that Republicans have “no evidence” to justify investigating the President.

It’s true there’s no proof so far that the President cashed checks from foreign sources. But there’s plenty of evidence that son Hunter and others in the Biden family received millions of dollars from foreign partners who believed they were buying influence with his father. The House has good reason to follow these leads about a President who is asking to remain in office for another four years.

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the House Oversight Chairman, this week outlined the evidence that Republicans have already gathered. It’s some list.

Former Hunter business partner Devon Archer says Joe Biden was “the brand” being sold, and that as Vice President he participated by speakerphone with Hunter and his business associates at least 20 times, and that he also met or dined with Hunter and his foreign associates. These included Russian oligarchs, a Ukrainian executive being investigated for corruption, and a Chinese business partner for whose daughter Mr. Archer thinks Joe Biden wrote a college letter of recommendation.

We also know that Vice President Biden okayed talking points on the Ukrainian company Burisma supplied by Hunter business associate Eric Schwerin. We know the State Department’s George Kent warned Mr. Biden in 2015 that Hunter’s presence on the board of Burisma was being used to undermine America’s anti-corruption message.

An FBI informant has told the bureau that Mykola Zlochevsky, Burisma’s CEO, paid $5 million each in bribes to Hunter and Joe. This hasn’t been corroborated. More recently we learned that Hunter business partner James Gilliar emailed Hunter and other associates that 10% of a deal with Chinese energy firm CEFC was to go to the “big guy.” Former Hunter business partner Tony Bobulinski has said the big guy was Joe Biden.

The Biden money trail goes through at least 20 shell companies; the Vice President used different email pseudonyms; and at least 170 financial transactions related to Hunter or Joe’s brother James Biden were flagged to Treasury as suspicious. A pair of IRS agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, told Congress that the Justice Department undermined their investigation into Hunter Biden’s emails and tax filings.

Mr. Biden has obfuscated all of this from the start, such as denying in a 2020 campaign debate that his family had received money from China. He also invoked a phony talking point cooked up by 51 former intelligence officers to declare Hunter’s infamous laptop Russian disinformation. His administration has stonewalled House efforts to get the information it seeks and has now set up a war room to fight an inquiry.

Starting an inquiry doesn’t mean it will end in impeachment, and there’s not enough evidence so far to justify such a step. But to say there’s no cause for investigation is to deny the reality of all we’ve learned about the Biden family business.