McCarthy demands Biden ‘give us his bank statements’ as impeachment probe looms

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called on President Biden to “give us his bank statements” to prove he didn’t benefit from his family’s foreign business dealing as Republicans prepare to launch an impeachment inquiry as early as next month.

“I think there’s enough proof out there that this Biden family needs to come forward and show there wasn’t a pay to play,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Monday night — after testimony last week from first son Hunter Biden’s former associate Devon Archer implicated Joe Biden in about two dozen phone calls and in-person meetings with his son’s foreign patrons.

McCarthy said that an impeachment inquiry, which he first raised in late July as a possibility, “empowers Congress, Republicans and Democrats of their committee, to be able to get the information if somebody fights from providing it to them.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether Biden would provide his bank statements to Congress.

The president ignored a query in June about the possibility of handing over his bank statements during a gaggle with reporters on the White House lawn.

In the same gaggle, he denied being involved in a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message in which Hunter wrote to a Chinese government-linked businessman that he was “sitting here with my father” and threatened retribution if an agreement was not fulfilled.

Days later, roughly $5 million was transferred into Biden-linked bank accounts.

The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the bank records of many of first son Hunter and first brother James Biden’s business partners, allowing the panel to allege in May that foreign payments flowed to nine Biden family members.

Hunter, now 53, griped in communications retrieved from his abandoned laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to his father, who continues to insist he never discussed business with his son, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

The Oversight Committee has not yet subpoenaed bank records for either the president or members of his family.

Sources close to discussions about a potential Biden impeachment inquiry told The Post that Republicans plan to call additional witnesses and unveil further evidence linking Joe Biden to his family’s business dealings before calling a vote in the narrowly divided House to launch the inquiry.

McCarthy would only be able to lose four Republican votes on the floor, meaning that skeptical moderates will have to be convinced.

The speaker has framed an impeachment inquiry as distinct from an actual impeachment proceeding, saying the former merely grants legislators stronger investigative powers.

However, an inquiry would almost certainly result in the drafting of articles of impeachment.

Only three US presidents — Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — have been impeached, twice in Trump’s case.

All three were acquitted by the Senate, where a two-thirds margin is required to remove a president from office.

Although it’s possible the impeachment inquiry would begin in late September, some Republican sources expect it to begin in October due to a government funding debate that’s expected to take priority when the House returns from its summer break on Sept. 12.

That would likely push a final House floor vote on Biden’s impeachment and the potential convening of a Senate trial to about January.

That would coincide with the start of early-state primary elections and caucuses in the presidential race. Biden currently faces no major challenges for the Democratic nomination.

House Democrats have sought to reframe investigations by alleging that many powerful families in Washington accept foreign income — while casting investigations of the Biden family for doing so as a diversion from Trump’s legal woes as he seeks a rematch of his 2020 election loss.

Trump, 77, was criminally charged last week for the third time this year, this time on counts linked to his attempts to reverse his defeat.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “we know that there’s a lot of influence in Washington that’s based on people’s family connections … and I have repeatedly asked [Oversight Committee Republicans] for us to look at that in a serious and substantive and methodical and non-partisan way.”

In his interview with Hannity, McCarthy signaled potential wide-ranging scope for any inquiry, including the alleged coverup in the criminal investigation of first son Hunter Biden and analysis of Joe Biden’s actions regarding various family associates.

Two IRS agents testified last month to Congress that they were blocked from investigating Joe Biden’s role in his son’s business dealings and that Biden-appointed prosecutors blocked charges against the first son in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

Hunter’s probation-only plea deal to federal tax and gun charges in Delaware, which critics derided as a slap on the wrist for up to $2.2 million in alleged tax evasion, fell apart at a dramatic court hearing July 26 after questioning by a federal judge led to the revelation of a secret side agreement that would have granted Hunter broad immunity for past crimes, contrary to the public representation of prosecutors.

McCarthy told Hannity Republicans intended to further investigate a bribery allegation that VP Biden was paid to push the ouster Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin as a favor to gas firm Burisma Holdings.

The company paid Hunter Biden up to $1 million per year beginning when his father assumed control of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy in early 2014.

The speaker said he also wants to study why Biden has spared former Moscow first lady Yelena Baturina, a billionaire, from sanctions on Russia’s business elite over last year’s invasion of Ukraine.

Baturina dined with the elder Biden during his vice presidency and transferred $3.5 million to a firm associated with the first son, most of which was sent on to a separate entity co-owned by Hunter, Archer confirmed last week.

McCarthy said the Biden family doesn’t “produce any products.”

“If you’re an expert when it comes to foreign policy, why isn’t it Italy or the UK or France hiring you?” he asked. “Why is it just Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania?”