Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, formally endorsed on Tuesday an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his son's foreign business dealings.
“Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden did lie to American people about his own knowledge of his family's foreign business dealings,” Mr McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. They warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.”
The inquiry will centre on Mr Biden's activity surrounding his son Hunter Biden's business dealings.
House-led Republican investigations have yet to provide any direct evidence that the President financially benefited from his son's business dealings.
Ian Sams, a White House spokesman for Oversight and Investigations, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the Republicans had no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr Biden and described the impeachment probe as “extreme politics at its worst”.
Mr McCarthy alleged on Tuesday that “Biden used his official office to co-ordinate with Hunter Biden's business partners about Hunter's role in [Ukrainian energy company] Burisma”.
Impeachment by the House, the political equivalent of a criminal indictment, would lead to a “trial” by the Senate's 100 members, who can vote to remove a president with a two-thirds majority vote.
Such an outcome, however, is highly unlikely.
Mr McCarthy has been under pressure from more conservative corners of his party to ramp up investigations into the Biden family. Republicans voted in June to begin the formalities that could lead to impeachment.
Members of Mr Biden's Democratic party have accused Republicans of deflecting attention from the mushrooming legal woes of former president Donald Trump, who himself faced two impeachments from a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Mr McCarthy said House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan and House Ways and Means Committee chairman Jason Smith would lead the inquiry.
If you go
- The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
- The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
- The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
