PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: June 5, 2024
Washington, D.C. – Today, James Comer and Jim Jordan used their committee chairmanships to conduct their latest political stunt – baseless criminal referrals. Notably, they are not sending criminal referrals for President Biden because despite spending over a year relentlessly investigating the President, MAGA House Republicans have failed to find a single shred of evidence of wrongdoing by him.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project executive director, Kyle Herrig, issued the following statement:
“Another day, another example of MAGA House Republicans doing convicted felon Trump’s bidding and going after his political enemies. After nearly two years of investigating President Biden, they have found no evidence of any wrongdoing. Even right wing commentators and Republican Members of Congress have said they have no case against President Biden. Never ones to let the evidence get in the way of their conspiracies, today’s referrals are their latest sad attempt to distract from Trump’s felonies and save face for their failure of an impeachment.”
Background on Failed, Baseless Biden Impeachment Effort
House Oversight Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and their MAGA colleagues have wasted a year and a half pushing a baseless, partisan impeachment inquiry that has turned up no evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden. Some lowlights:
Comer’s Key Source, Alexander Smirnov, Was Arrested For Lying About President Biden and Exposed For Ties To Russian Intelligence. On. Feb. 15, a federal court unsealed a two-count indictment against Comer’s key informant Alexander Smirnov, charging him with making false statements accusing President Biden and his son Hunter of corruption and bribery and exposing the debunked, criminal lie at the center of Comer’s baseless impeachment inquiry. Just days later, Smirnov was also exposed for meeting with and being fed information by Russian intelligence officials.
- Comer Tried To Salvage His Ruined Impeachment Probe By Gaslighting Everyone About His Past Claims. Even though he previously swore up and down that Smirnov was credible, Comer started scrambling to sweep it all under the rug as soon as Smirnov’s indictment went public and his Russian ties were exposed, telling reporters, “he wasn’t an important part of this investigation because I didn’t even know who he was,” and deleting references to the allegations in a letter to an upcoming witness.
Comer Promised A New Hearing Featuring Recycled, Fringe Witnesses Would “Iron Out” His Dying Impeachment Probe. It Was Over Before It Started. On Mar. 20, House Oversight Republicans held an impeachment stunt hearing featuring a convicted felon appearing virtually from prison and a Trump-aligned MAGA insider. Both witnesses’ past testimonies were filled with lies, contradictions, and Russian disinformation, and unsurprisingly, the two witnesses utterly failed to produce any evidence implicating President Biden. Right-wing media was unmoved by the partisan stunt, with a Newsmax host commenting, “It kind of seems like you’re chasing your tail at this point,” and a Fox News host admitting, “It just feels like they keep doing the same hearing over and over again.”
January 2024: Depositions With Five Biden Family Associates and Business Contacts Revealed No Evidence. In January, House Republicans interviewed five friends and business associates connected to the Biden family, including longtime Biden family bookkeeper Eric Schwerin, Hunter Biden’s longtime business associates Rob Walker and Mervyn Yan, Hunter’s close friend Kevin Morris, and art dealer Georges Berges. All five testified that President Biden was not involved in his family’s business affairs. Despite Comer’s lofty claims that these interviews would turn up evidence of wrongdoing, they turned up nothing. Instead, they exposed Comer’s penchant for spreading lies and misinformation in order to further the MAGA agenda instead of pursuing the truth. Comer claimed that evidence of corruption was in “the transcripts,” citing Rob Walker’s testimony, but, as Walker testified: “To be clear, President Biden — while in office or as a private citizen — was never involved in any of the business activities we pursued. Any statement to the contrary is simply false.”
Even Some House Republicans Have Admitted The Baseless Biden Impeachment Has Failed
- Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA): “I Have Not Seen Any Impeachable Offenses.” “There’s nothing that’s come up so far that makes me think that this thing’s anything close to ready for a vote, meaning that I have not seen any impeachable offenses. […] Have I seen fire and clear violations of law or anything that again, remotely approaches an impeachment threshold? No, in regard to the president.” [NBC News, 3/4/24]
- Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) Admitted There’s No Evidence Of Crimes. “The lawyers and the committee that I talk to say there’s not a specific crime, and he’d need that for high crime or misdemeanor. … But when I talked to the lawyers on the committee staff, they say, at this point, there is not a specific crime that’s been committed. And I think that’s important. […] I don’t know if it’s time, right now [to drop the investigation]. But I do think we’re probably nearing the conclusion of this investigation.” [Rolling Stone, 3/31/24]
- Former Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO): “There Is No Evidence.” “There is no evidence that Joe Biden received money. When Sen. Johnson talks about the Biden crime family and talks about the don of the Biden crime family, you have to have evidence.” [Newsmax, 2/26/24, VIDEO]
For more background on the failed impeachment, read our April report: All Hat, No Cattle – A Timeline of Comer’s Impeachment Hype