The impeachment probe into President Joe Biden will escalate on Wednesday in a dramatic new way.
Congressional Republicans are preparing for high-stakes public hearing featuring two former business associates of the president’s troubled son, Hunter Biden — including a current convict.
The televised hearing before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees is expected to spotlight explosive allegations from two key witnesses – Tony Bobulinski, a former naval officer and business partner of Hunter, and convicted felon Jason Galanis, who partnered with the Biden family.
In excerpts of his opening statement obtained by Fox News, Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-T.N., will accuse the Bidens of peddling political influence for personal profit over many years.
“What is apparent, after over a year of investigation, is that the Bidens do not work in any traditional sense of the word…The Bidens sell Joe Biden,” Comer’s statement read.
Comer will again assert the committees have “found no credible evidence of the Bidens providing any work product” despite enriching themselves through dealings with foreign entities.
“The Biden family promises they can make a foreign partner’s problems go away by engaging the U.S. government,” his statement read. “Joe Biden is the Biden family’s closer.”
Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden business partner, is expected to testify that in 2017 he met personally with Joe Biden for over 45 minutes to discuss their joint venture with a Chinese energy company.
He has previously claimed Biden “enabled” his son to sell access to adversaries like China and Russia.
Galanis, currently imprisoned on fraud charges, will appear virtually and will alledge the president considered joining a venture tied to the Chinese Communist Party after his vice presidency. Galanis says Hunter and associate Devon Archer used coded language about Biden’s “political influence” to sell the deal.
Republicans have long accused Biden of lying about being unaware of or uninvolved in his family’s lucrative foreign business activities while in office.
Democrats have blasted the GOP’s “hopeless” impeachment efforts and said it is made up of lies and Kremlin-linked sources seeking to smear Biden.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Oversight panel’s top Democrat, is expected to bring Lev Parnas – an ex-associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani convicted in a campaign finance case – to “debunk the bogus claims at the heart of the impeachment probe.”
While Hunter Biden testified behind closed doors last month that his father never improperly benefited from or was involved in his ventures, he also admitted putting Joe on speakerphone with associates and having him appear at business dinners with clients.
While the president has maintained he never discussed Hunter’s dealings directly, critics said these many phone calls and dinner appearances were an indirect endorsement.
Wednesday’s hearing comes after Comer’s committee voted along party lines to recommend Biden’s impeachment, with Democrats accusing the GOP of a political stunt.
It remains unclear whether Republican House leadership will green light actual impeachment proceedings. The GOP has extremely narrow control of the House.
Regardless of the overall outcome, Wednesday’s spectacle will mark a climax in the long-simmering battle over the Biden family’s controversial business history — an event that will resonate throughout the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
For Republicans, the testimony may bolster their narrative of elite corruption they believe should disqualify Biden from a second term.
Democrats aim to discredit the entire GOP effort as a desperate political revenge scheme.
The hearing could decide a question for potential independent or undecided voters: Is Biden a respected elder statesmen or, in the GOP’s framing, the patriarch profiting from decades of shady influence peddling?
The Horn editorial team