Is Joe Biden Guilty of Bribery?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns impeachment and removal from office for the President of the United States. Article II, Section 4 states: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School published the following about impeachment and removal from office. 

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach and remove the President, Vice President, and all federal “civil officers” for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. This tool was inherited from English practice, in which Parliament impeached and convicted ministers and favorites of the Crown in a struggle for to rein in the Crown’s power. Congress’s power of impeachment is an important check on the executive and judicial branches, recognized by the Framers as a crucial tool for holding government officers accountable for violations of the law and abuses of power. Congress has most notably employed the impeachment tool against the President and federal judges, but all federal civil officers are subject to removal by impeachment. The practice of impeachment makes clear, however, that Members of Congress are not civil officers subject to impeachment and removal.

While judicial precedents inform the effective substantive meaning of various provisions of the Constitution, impeachment is at bottom a unique political process largely unchecked by the judiciary. While the meaning of treason and bribery is relatively clear, the scope of high crimes and misdemeanors lacks a formal definition and has been fleshed out over time, in a manner perhaps analogous to the common law, through the practice of impeachments in the United States Congress. The type of behavior that qualifies as impeachable conduct, and the circumstances in which impeachment is an appropriate remedy for such actions, are thus determined by, among other things, competing political interests, changing institutional relationships among the three branches of government, and legislators’ interaction with and accountability to the public. The weight of historical practice, rather than judicial precedent, is thus central to understanding the nature of impeachment in the United States.

Most Americans know that former President Donald Trump was impeached twice by the Nancy Pelosi-led House of Representatives but not convicted by the Senate. Now cries of impeachment are being heard again, this time for President Joe Biden.

Last week there was a stand off between FBI director Christopher Wray and James Comer, Chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee. Comer subpoenaed a FD-1023 form from the FBI, and Wray refused to give it to him. Wray showed the document to Comer and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), but Comer insisted that the entire committee, both Republicans and Democrats must see the document. Wray continued his refusal to give the document to Comer, but a compromise was reached where he showed the document to the entire committee in a safe place.

The FD-1023 form confirms that a “confidential human source” alleged in a June 2020 interview with the FBI that then-Vice President Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe from an executive of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas firm that put Hunter Biden on its board. According to Jarrett Stepman in an article at The Daily Signal, “the document alleges that then- Vice President Joe Biden was paid by Burisma in a criminal bribery scheme to influence U.S. foreign policy in 2015 and 2016. Stepman continued with his explanation. 

The FBI source described how a Burisma executive bribed the Bidens to get access to U.S. oil while Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was investigating the company. The executive, according to the FBI source, wanted to pay Biden and his son $5 million each. “$5 million for one Biden, $5 million for the other Biden,” the executive said, according to the FBI source. The source believed these payments to both Bidens eventually occurred “through so many different bank accounts.”

Biden called the accusation a “bunch of malarky” when he was questioned by reporters, and other Democrats have cast doubt on the investigation. However, Republicans say that the contents of the FBI document are “credible.”

The disclosure deserves to be investigated. If the alleged information proves to be accurate and truthful, President Joe Biden should be impeached for bribery – one of the conditions outlined in the Constitution deserving of impeachment and removal from office. If the information is not accurate or truthful, Biden deserves to be exonerated.