Bribery Allegations at Heart of House Impeachment Inquiry

Efforts by House Republicans to impeach President Joe Biden center around the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, The Hill reported.

That’s because bribery is one of the few crimes spelled out as an impeachable offense in the Constitution.

“The impeachable offense is — I think, the key thing is in Burisma,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, recently said.

Republicans say they believe Biden conditioned a $1 billion loan guarantee to Ukraine on firing state prosecutor Viktor Shokin in an effort to help Burisma, The Hill reported Thursday.

Republicans argue that the loan guarantee benefited Burisma and, by extension, Hunter Biden, a company board member.

But Republicans must prove it.

“The political problem we have is that politically, it would be very nice if you had what everybody calls the smoking gun. The reality is, in a lot of these large-scale cases, there never is,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., The Hill reported.

“There’s a totality of evidence and a totality of circumstances that says there is no rational explanation for all of it.”

Although impeachments are political exercises, lawmakers and the accused often turn to court standards for guidance.

Legal experts say the GOP must prove a quid pro quo to prevail in court.

“You need some evidence of the actual agreement, and that can’t entirely be inferred from circumstantial evidence, or you’re going to be [in] tricky territory. And you need an official act, which is a legal question,” former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori told The Hill.

If the House passed articles of impeachment, the Senate would hold a trial.

“The Constitution doesn’t specify the burden of proof in the Senate on … articles of impeachment. So it’s up to the senators to decide what test to apply,” said Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., vying to serve as his state’s attorney general next year, The Hill reported. “But even if you take the more ordinary criminal prosecution case, your obligation still is not to prove something beyond any doubt, it’s beyond a reasonable doubt.

“[Bribery] is the most evident wrong that someone in public office can undertake. The evidence that already exists is quite powerful that something in the neighborhood of bribery was going on.”

The House last week authorized the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, with every Republican rallying behind the politically charged process despite lingering concerns among some in the party.

Armstrong had sponsored the impeachment inquiry resolution.

A formal resolution to remove Biden from office would spark a study of whether he violated federal bribery statutes that were narrowed in a 2016 Supreme Court decision, The Hill reported. 

At the time of his firing, Shokin wasn’t investigating Burisma. Plus, the effort to withhold aid for his ouster had bipartisan support in the U.S. because many people said the prosecutor wasn’t tackling corruption.

Shokin said he was fired as a result of a pressure campaign brought by the Obama administration, specifically at the “insistence of Joe Biden.”

FBI whistleblower Devon Archer relayed a conversation in which Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky bragged about paying then-Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden.

The bureau investigated the claim but was unable to corroborate.  

The Associated Press contributed to this story.