By Frank Kamuntu
US President Joe Biden could be facing a possible impeachment inquiry over his family’s business dealings.
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he is directing committees to open a formal investigation into what he called a “culture of rampant corruption” around the first family.
He said over the past few months “House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct”.
Mr McCarthy is planning to convene lawmakers behind closed doors multiple times this week, including for a meeting to discuss a potential impeachment.
“I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” McCarthy told reporters.
“We will go where the evidence takes us.”
Republicans, who now narrowly control the House, have accused Mr Biden of profiting while he served as vice president from 2009 to 2017 from his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business ventures. They have not yet presented substantiation.
Speaker McCarthy said several committees will begin gathering evidence of possible financial misconduct.
Mark Bednar, a spokesperson for Speaker McCarthy, later said that the House was not yet expected to vote on an impeachment inquiry.
A former business associate of Hunter Biden told a House hearing that the president’s son sold the “illusion” of access to power while his father was vice president, according to a transcript released last month.
The White House has said there is no basis for an investigation and Mr Biden has mocked Republicans over a possible impeachment.
Many Republicans were infuriated when the House, then controlled by Democrats, twice impeached President Donald Trump, in 2019 and 2021, though he was acquitted both times in the Senate.
Some on the party’s right have said they would try to remove Mr McCarthy as the leader of the House if he did not move ahead with an impeachment effort against the president.
However, any impeachment effort against Mr Biden would be unlikely to succeed as even if the Republican-controlled House votes to impeach the president, an uncertain prospect in itself given the party’s narrow vote margin, it would almost certainly fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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