Jim Jordan Comes Up Empty

Jim Jordan claimed the Republican Party had secured "damning evidence" in President Joe Biden's impeachment inquiry, despite that evidence coming from a Hunter Biden associate who said he was not aware of any wrongdoing by the president.

In December, the House of Representatives voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry into the president. It followed months of investigating allegations that he intervened and benefited from his son Hunter Biden's business dealings with China and Ukraine while the elder Biden was vice president under former President Barack Obama, including accusations of taking bribes.

The allegations have been denied by the White House and Hunter Biden's lawyers, with Democrats criticizing the GOP's impeachment inquiries for failing to find any meaningful evidence against the president.

Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary, one of the panels involved in the inquiry, was asked by Fox News on Sunday about how it was progressing. He said "the most damning evidence we got thus far is what we got from Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's business partner, because he says what they were selling was the brand.

"Remember, there's no business here. They're selling access to the brand. The brand is the big guy. The brand is Joe Biden. Devon Archer said that."

Jordan added that Hunter Biden was asked by Ukrainian energy firm Burisma leaders to "weigh in with D.C. and his father to help them deal with the pressure they are under."

However Archer, who served with Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma and testified before the House Oversight Committee in July 2023, has not confirmed Republican accusations of bad practice by Joe Biden.

In a transcript of his testimony before the committee, he was asked if he was aware of any wrongdoing by the president.

"No. I'm not aware of any," Archer said.

He also said he had no knowledge of Joe Biden having involvement with Burisma and rejected claims that the president and Hunter Biden each accepted a $5-million bribe from an official within the company.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Jordan by email to comment on this story.

Archer said Hunter Biden did have phone calls with his father during business meetings. Although he said these were casual, he told Tucker Carlson in an interview after his testimony: "In the rearview, it's an abuse of soft power."

Asked by Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York, whether it was "fair to say that Hunter Biden was selling the illusion of access to his father," Archer responded, "Yes."

In a statement from the White House when the inquiry was announced in December, Biden said: "Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts."

"There is a lot of work to be done," Biden said. "But after wasting weeks trying to find a new speaker of the House and having to expel their own members, Republicans in Congress are leaving for a month without doing anything to address these pressing challenges."