Rep. James Comer Talks Up Criminal Referrals, Legislation As Impeachment Prospects Dim

WASHINGTON – Instead of impeaching President Joe Biden, Republicans may settle for telling the Justice Department to prosecute his son.

House oversight committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who has led Republicans’ investigation of Biden’s alleged involvement in his son Hunter’s foreign business deals, suggested Wednesday that the end result of the probe would be criminal referrals to the Justice Department, not the toppling of a president.

“The purpose of this investigation was to get the truth to the American people and then hold people accountable for wrongdoing,” Comer said on Fox News.

“We’re gonna do what we can to hold them accountable,” Comer continued. “At the end of the day, what does accountability look like? It looks like criminal referrals. It looks like referring people to the Department of Justice.”

Since launching the investigation last year, Comer has repeatedly said that his committee would refer the president’s son, Hunter Biden, for prosecution by the Justice Department. He’s also said he would draft legislation addressing “influence-peddling” by presidential family members.

But even before Republicans formally voted to make Comer’s investigation an impeachment inquiry in December, it was clear that impeachment was their ultimate prize — payback for the two impeachments Democrats lodged against former President Donald Trump.

As Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) put it last month: “You got Joe, and then you got Donald Trump, and then Joe says, ‘Donald, you’ve been impeached twice, man, you’re a bad, bad hombre.’ And then Donald says, ‘Joe, you’ve been impeached once, if you can remember.’”

The facts of the case, however, haven’t cooperated with Republicans’ plans, and a vote on articles of impeachment