Q&A – Are Congressional Investigations of Hunter Biden & COVID Origins of any Use?
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Today’s Entry: Submitted via talkback during my interview last Friday with Florida Congressman Michael Waltz who promised a complete investigation into COVID origins & Hunter Biden if Republicans take back control of Congress.
Bottom Line: The first and perhaps most important place to start is the Constitutional purpose of Congressional investigations. In understanding the basis for Congress to conduct investigations, it helps explain the intended purpose and the limitations of them. Obviously, the Judicial branch of Government is where traditional law enforcement activity takes place. However, Congress has expressed authority to conduct investigations which are “in aid of its legislative function”. In other words, it’s the role of Congress to represent our interests. If our interests can potentially be better served through the findings of a Congressional investigation it can be justified. That factor specifically provides limits on its ability. For example, Congress has no lawful authority to simply decide to investigate a private citizen as there would be no broad benefit legislatively of doing so. In the case of the Biden’s for example, there very much could be effective policy understanding and laws which could be crafted to attempt to inhibit the family of the Vice-President, or President as the case may be, from engaging in certain activities with foreign actors that could lead to conflicts of interests. The next piece of the puzzle is to understand the Constitutional role of Congressional criminal investigations – as the Biden investigation in Delaware is and the Congressional investigation would be.
I’ll start by using a local example of how this works. Just as it’s the role of Florida’s Elections Supervisors to investigate and verify the legitimacy of voters and ballots cast within their jurisdiction, they lack the ability to prosecute crimes. Instead, if they find potential misfeasance, it’s their responsibility to officially refer those cases to law enforcement for their assistance in prosecuting the cases. The process in Congress works in a similar fashion. This side of Contempt of Congress offenses, Congress must adhere to the traditional balance of powers. Should Congressional investigations reveal alleged criminal conduct – it's their responsibility to refer the case to the Department of Justice for their pursuit of the Congressional investigation. Structurally, that’s what Congress can do and that’s why Congressional investigations do matter. Of course, this is also where it becomes challenging for justice to be served based upon the political landscape.
Let’s say Republicans take control of Congress and next January begin sweeping investigations into the alleged Biden misfeasance which produces evidence of criminal conduct. Joe Biden is still president, and the Justice Department officials are still his appointees. The cynical approach would be to suggest that any Congressional investigations wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans because the Biden administration isn’t going to prosecute itself. In most instances that train of thought would probably be true. There are two very specific reasons as to why this time has the potential to be different. The Durham investigation into the 2016 Trump-Russia collusion con and the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden which began in 2019.
These two investigations are different but related. Both were initiated under the Trump administration and have produced enough evidence to retain empaneled grand juries having produced three indictments thus far – and even promoted news organizations like the New York Times and Washington Post (which lied about both for years) to acknowledge the legitimacy of the investigations. This becomes part of the broader point of what can come out of a Congressional investigation. No place to hide. If enough evidence is produced from enough places with much of the information being publicly disclosed – whether Biden’s president or not – he’s likely to be unable to protect Hunter or himself (if indeed he’s found to have been directly connected as evidence does point to). Aside from public outrage – Justice officials who would attempt to bury the cases could themselves be found guilty of corruption charges if they chose not to pursue justice. For these reasons, with the Durham and Hunter Biden federal investigations already being years into their work, the promises by Republicans to investigate Hunter Biden, COVID origins & Russia collusion aren’t political platitudes in an election year. It has the potential to permanently impact public policy in addition to aiding in justice being served with all three alleged criminal conspiracies.
The wheels of justice do move slowly, just look at how long it's taken to arrive at jury selection in the Nikolas Cruz case, for example. There is however, the chance and increasingly likelihood, it will eventually be served.