GOP impeachment strategy bets big on bribery allegations

Signals from the GOP that it plans to put bribery allegations front and center in its impeachment probe of President Biden have renewed questions over how Republicans can prove their most disputed claim.  

In making their case for the impeachment inquiry approved by the full House last week, GOP leaders stressed their commitment to investigating one of the few crimes spelled out as an impeachable offense in the Constitution. 

But it’s a pathway that also comes with pitfalls, and that adds pressure on the GOP to back allegations that have been swirling for years and have been scrutinized and debunked by fact checkers. 

“The impeachable offense is — I think, the key thing is in Burisma,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters in a recent briefing, referring to Hunter Biden’s work for the Ukrainian energy company. 

While a House impeachment inquiry is not a court of law, any formal resolution to boot President Biden from office would ignite a study of whether he violated federal bribery statutes that were narrowed in a 2016 Supreme Court decision.