Republicans face setback in Biden impeachment probe as key witness refuses to attend hearing

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The Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is facing yet another roadblock: A key witness will not attend an open committee hearing.

An attorney for Devon Archer, a former associate of Hunter Biden, cited a “patently unreasonable” amount of time to prepare for the hearing when declining to appear, ABC News reports. Matthew Schwartz, his lawyer, said the committee asked them in a Friday “end-of-day email” if he would appear on Wednesday, per ABC News.

Mr Archer facilitated business connections for the president’s son in Ukraine and China. GOP lawmakers have fixated on Mr Acher for several years after they found in 2020 that Mr Biden had met with Mr Acher in the White House in 2014 and played golf with him and Hunter Biden that same year.

Some GOP lawmakers claim this is evidence that Mr Biden was more involved in his son’s dealings than he has revealed. However, the president claimed the White House visit was for a grade school project by Mr Archer’s son, while in 2019 saying the golf game was “not a conflict,” ABC News reports.

Mr Archer previously testified before Congress in August 2023, giving a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee.

Meanwhile, Mr Acher is currently staring down a year-long prison sentence for conspiring to defraud a Native American tribe, a crime unrelated to his work with the president’s son. He is out on bail and expected to report to prison in the coming months after unsuccessfully attempting to appeal his criminal case to the Supreme Court.

Mr Archer’s refusal to appear isn’t the only roadblock the GOP impeachment inquiry is facing.

Last month, former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov was charged with lying in 2020 when he claimed, without evidence, the Bidens took millions of dollars in bribes from Ukrainian energy executives.

Then last week, the White House sent a letter to Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson asking him to end the six-month inquiry, citing the party’s failure to provide any evidence of the president’s alleged wrongdoings.

The letter also pointed out that two Republicans overseeing the inquiry — House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan — have said their true purpose is to damage Mr Biden politically and to bolster former president Donald Trump.