Republican-controlled US House votes to authorise impeachment inquiry into president Joe Biden

House Republicans accuse president and his family of improperly profiting from decisions made when he served in Obama administration

Republican congressman Byron Donalds says he expects US House of Representatives House to draft articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden in the spring. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Republican congressman Byron Donalds says he expects US House of Representatives House to draft articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden in the spring. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Republican-controlled US House has voted to authorise impeachment inquiry into Democratic president Joe Biden.

The House is due to break on Thursday for a year-end holiday break of more than three weeks.

House Republicans accuse Mr Biden and his family of improperly profiting from policy decisions he participated in as vice-president during Barack Obama’s 2009-2017 administration.

They have also accused the Department of Justice of inappropriately interfering with an investigation into Mr Biden’s businessman son Hunter Biden. The justice department denies wrongdoing.

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Republicans are unlikely to make real political gains from Hunter Biden’s legal tax woes, or to successfully link them to his father, say political experts.

Republican representative Kelly Armstrong on Thursday introduced a 14-page resolution that would allow the full House to vote on authorising the investigation.

House Republicans have so far failed to produce evidence tying Mr Biden’s actions as vice-president to his son’s businesses, and it is unlikely that the Senate, where Mr Biden’s Democratic Party holds a slim majority, would vote to convict the president if the House did pass articles of impeachment.

Byron Donalds, a Republican member of one of three House committees investigating Mr Biden, told Fox News on Sunday that he expected the inquiry to wrap up within the next two months and the House to draft articles of impeachment sometime in the spring. – Reuters

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