As Biden’s impeachment fails, Republicans in the House of Representatives investigate criminal referrals
Faced with the prospect that they may never be able to impeach President Biden, Republicans in the House of Representatives are exploring a pivot to a different strategy: issuing criminal referrals against him and those close to him.
In recent weeks, a political and factual reality has emerged on Capitol Hill. Despite their subpoenas and depositions, Republicans in the House of Representatives have failed to provide any solid evidence of Mr. Biden’s misconduct and lack the votes in their own party to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment.
Instead, top Republican Party lawmakers have begun strategizing to make criminal referrals against Mr. Biden, members of his family and his associates, essentially sending letters to the Justice Department urging them urging prosecutors to investigate specific crimes they believe were committed.
The move would be largely symbolic, but it would allow Republicans in Congress to save face while putting an end to their so-far troubled impeachment inquiry. It has the added appeal for the Republican Party of joining former President Donald J. Trump’s pledge to prosecute Mr. Biden if he wins the election.
And it would prevent a repeat of the humiliating process that Republicans in the House of Representatives, who have a small and shrinking majority, endured last month with the impeachment of Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security. After initially failing to get enough votes to impeach Mr. Mayorkas, Republicans narrowly succeeded on the second try, only to realize that the Democratic-controlled Senate was poised to quickly acquit him — or even dismissal of charges without trial.
“There’s nothing I’ve heard in the last few weeks that says we’re anywhere close to voting” for impeachment, said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, Republican of North Dakota and author of the resolution authorizing the impeachment inquiry.
Mr Armstrong said he believed criminal referrals were the much more likely outcome. Mr. Armstrong suggested that Republicans in the House of Representatives could make references regarding alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act in connection with international business deals by Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and suggested that the Department of Justice would investigate allegations of obstruction.
“I’m still interested in why we haven’t gotten better answers about the whole-of-government approach to obstructing all these investigations,” Mr. Armstrong said.
Republicans say they are not done with their investigation and that they could still change course and decide to hold an impeachment vote. They have scheduled a public hearing next week with former business associates of Hunter Biden, though Mr. Biden himself has declined to appear.
In an interview, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he also demanded audio recordings of President Biden that were part of Robert K. Hur’s special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents.
Criminal referrals, Mr. Jordan said, were among the options “on the table” as the Republican Party moves forward.
Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and chairman of the Oversight Committee, has repeatedly suggested in recent weeks that issuing criminal referrals could mean the end of the impeachment inquiry, rather than a vote on impeachment.
“What does responsibility ultimately look like? It looks like criminal references. It seems like people are being referred to the Justice Department,” Mr. Comer said in a recent interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “If Merrick Garland’s Justice Department does not take any criminal referrals seriously, then perhaps the next president, with a new attorney general, will.”
The shift to investigating criminal referrals came after Mr. Comer had what his aides said was a chance meeting with Mr. Trump in Florida last month. A spokeswoman for Mr. Comer would not comment on what was discussed but said that while having lunch with Vernon Hill, a banker who has donated to Mr. Trump’s campaigns, the chairman unexpectedly ran into Mr. short 10-minute conversation.
The potential change in strategy also comes as Republicans have lost seats in the House of Representatives, making impeachment all the more unlikely. With the departure next week of Rep. Ken Buck, the Colorado Republican, the party will have just 218 votes in the House of Representatives, a narrow majority of the 435-member organization.
On Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that Republican leaders were discussing the possibility of criminal referrals.
In a brief interview at the Capitol, he made clear that impeaching President Biden was not his top priority at the moment, saying he had been “a little busy with appropriations.” But he said House leadership would consider whether to issue criminal referrals.
“It needs more thought, that’s for sure,” he said.
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and a close ally of President Trump, was among those calling for Republicans in the House of Representatives to pursue criminal referrals against Mr. Biden and his family members.
“He deserves them,” Mr. Gaetz said of Mr. Biden.
Mr. Gaetz added that it was clear that Republicans did not have the votes for impeachment.
“I don’t think enough Republicans believe that a bribe can be obtained through a payment to a family member,” said Mr. Gaetz, who claimed that Hunter Biden’s income from foreign companies was little more. then a bribery scheme. But he added that if Trump were to win the election, he could install new staff at the Justice Department, which could pursue prosecutions based on Republicans’ referrals.
“The DOJ is about to change hands,” Mr. Gaetz said. “It’s about to be under new management.”
Criminal references would be politically easier for Republicans in the House of Representatives than impeachment. They do not require a vote from Congress or even have any legal weight. Mr. Comer could simply draft a letter outlining the allegations.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made major headlines in the last Congress with its criminal references to Mr. Trump. (He was later charged by the Justice Department with crimes related to the scheme to overturn the 2020 election.)
Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel on arming the government, said Republicans were just trying to salvage a failing investigation. Republicans suffered a brutal blow when one of the key pieces of evidence they presented was discredited by the Justice Department.
“They realize they don’t have the votes for impeachment because they don’t have the evidence,” Ms. Plaskett said. “But they realize that with a criminal referral, if there is a referral, it will take some time for it to work through the Department of Justice, which gives them additional fodder during the election cycle. They’re just trying to create some sort of false equivalency between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which isn’t there.”
Even some Republicans said a reference against Biden might not make sense. citing the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
“We are not referring a sitting president for criminal charges,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, Republican of California. He added that Republicans can refer the president’s relatives based on evidence they uncover, “but most of what we discovered, they already knew.”
Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, who participated in Hunter Biden’s closed-door deposition as a member of the Oversight Committee, said he believed the investigation had “clearly” crossed the Biden family’s threshold of reasonable suspicion, but that hadn’t happened yet. determined that the president had committed a crime.
“If our investigation shows that impeachment is not a just prosecution, perhaps a criminal referral is,” Mr. Higgins said.
But Mr. Higgins also suggested that Republicans in the House of Representatives could simply let voters decide.
“It’s a much heavier burden for impeachment. So I would say whatever the Oversight Committee does, the American people will have a chance to make a decision in November.”
Jonathan Swan And Maggie Haberman reporting contributed.