Over 300 pages about President Joe Biden, his family, and alleged unlawful conduct landed on Monday in Washington.
Just hours before the Democratic Convention begins in Chicago, Republicans hope their report on the sitting president will bring Biden down.
However, despite nearly a year of investigations, hearings, and evidence gathering, the report contains no concrete evidence that the president has committed any crime, according to American media.
Urging to Read
House Speaker Mike Johnson is, however, convinced that the investigation is damaging enough to Biden and the Democrats and urges, according to The Washington Post, "all Americans to read the report".
The impeachment process primarily concerns corruption allegations related to son Hunter Biden's activities abroad.
Republicans claim that the Biden family has received approximately 280 million kronor from private individuals in, among others, Russia and China, and that it is "unthinkable" that Joe Biden did not understand that it was incompatible with his role. He is also accused of having exploited his political positions to help his son make deals in Ukraine.
Unclear about Voting
It is highly unclear whether the report will lead to the next step, a vote on impeaching Biden.
Partly, Republicans have, according to AP, no popular support for further proceedings, and partly, the major opponent is now Kamala Harris, who is to be formally nominated as presidential candidate this week.
Moreover, the party has only a very small majority in the House of Representatives, and even if Biden were to be impeached in that chamber, the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, where he is likely to be acquitted.
In June, 54-year-old Hunter Biden was convicted of gun crimes in the state of Delaware after lying about his drug use when buying a pistol. This case is not related to the impeachment process.
The impeachment procedure is described in the US Constitution. The House of Representatives decides on impeachment, while the Senate acts as a court.
When it comes to the president, he or she can be removed from office by Congress if convicted in the impeachment trial of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors".
No president in the USA has been removed through impeachment. Donald Trump (2019–2020, 2021), Bill Clinton (1998), and Andrew Johnson (1868) were formally charged by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate.
Andrew Johnson was impeached after he dismissed the US Secretary of War, which at the time was a crime against a newly enacted law.
Bill Clinton was impeached after the so-called Lewinsky affair, where he lied about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, who worked as an assistant in the White House.
In Trump's first impeachment trial, he was accused of pressuring Ukraine's government to gain personal political advantage.
Donald Trump's second impeachment trial concerned "incitement to insurrection". It referred to his false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election and the speech Trump gave shortly before his supporters stormed Congress on January 6, 2021.
Trump is the only one in the USA who has been impeached twice and the only president who has been impeached after leaving the White House.
Regarding Richard Nixon's fall in 1974, after the Watergate scandal, the impeachment process had begun, but he resigned before the charges could be voted on.
Sources: The US Constitution, History.com, The New York Times
