If Democrats truly believe in Joe Biden’s innocence, they should welcome a formal impeachment inquiry. But they don’t believe it. So, they’ve embraced a phalanx strategy to oppose the investigation with the ardor of a guilty man who’s been caught with his hand in the till. Soon they’ll claim, "Don’t believe your lying eyes."

In announcing the inquiry, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said there are credible allegations of "abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption." Within minutes, the Biden White House flatly claimed there is "no evidence of wrongdoing." If so, why not prove it? Remove all doubt by presenting evidence of innocence. And there’s the rub.

For several months, House committees have accumulated incriminating facts implicating Joe Biden as complicit in his son’s influence-peddling schemes with foreign adversaries. 

MCCARTHY, HOUSE REPUBLICANS' IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY PLANS: THE CASE IS STRONG

The elder Biden met personally with Hunter’s overseas clients, had dinner with them, spoke by telephone with them on roughly 20 occasions, and coordinated with his son’s partners in covering it up. All the while, the president lied by insisting that he knew nothing about all the nefarious deals and never played a role. That farce was destroyed by Hunter’s partner, Devon Archer.

Bank records show that some $20 million dollars were funneled into a complex web of shell companies that appear to have no other purpose than to conceal the source of the cash that was then distributed to Biden family members in what smacks of an elaborate money laundering operation. Banks flagged more than 150 suspicious activities involving the Bidens as riches poured in from China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan, Romania and other countries over which then-Vice President Joe Biden exercised influence during the Obama administration.

In the face of the mounting evidence of illegality, Democrats have simply issued rote denials of wrongdoing without offering any countervailing evidence. Now is their chance to do so during the impeachment inquiry that will surely involve public hearings. It is also an opportunity for President Biden. Instead of stonewalling efforts to gain access to his banking records and his 5,400 alias emails, he can volunteer to turn them over. If he has nothing to hide, why hide them?

At the same time, media apologists can take a few moments to actually read up on the law instead of misrepresenting it to their viewers and readers. One of their favorite refrains is that influence peddling may be sleazy and corrupt, but it is not a crime. That is not remotely true.

The selling of influence is defined as bribery under 18 USC 201. Similar language can be found in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. They make it a felony for a public officeholder to promise a benefit in exchange for money. Fulfilling the benefit is not essential. The promise alone is criminal.

Another common canard recited by the media is that Joe Biden committed no crimes unless it can be shown that he personally received money. Again, this is incorrect. The same bribery statute noted above states that a felony has occurred if the money goes to "any other person or entity" other than the office holder. So, if Hunter Biden and the Biden family were enriched by virtue of Joe Biden’s promise to exercise influence as vice president then crimes were committed.

The House Oversight Committee has already uncovered compelling evidence that Biden used his influence to benefit the Ukrainian gas giant, Burisma, which was paying his son a million dollars per year. At the time, the company was under investigation for corruption by the country’s chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. In a November 2015 email, Burisma urged that Hunter use his leverage to kill the probe. Thereafter, he met personally with its CEO Mykola Zlochevsky who ordered Hunter to get his Dad on the phone, which he did. ‘

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Days later Joe Biden flew to Kyiv and demanded Shokin’s firing or else the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in American taxpayer aid, even though the Obama administration had already approved the financial package. In a recent Fox News interview, Shokin accused Joe Biden of engineering his firing to quash the investigation and stated that bribery was the likely motivation. This is consistent with FBI documents revealing that a trusted informant confided to the bureau that Zlochevsky bribed both Joe and Hunter Biden to make the Burisma scandal vanish.

These disturbing allegations merit examination through a House impeachment inquiry. Did Joe Biden sell out his country for profit? Did his family get rich by betraying the public’s trust? Americans deserve answers, especially as Biden runs for re-election to a second term.

This is exactly what our Founding Fathers feared the most —an unscrupulous and greedy President who might jeopardize our national security for personal enrichment. It is why they crafted a Constitutional provision specifically identifying treason and bribery as impeachable offenses.

But don’t expect Democrats to welcome the opportunity to clear Joe Biden’s name, as they should. It’s an impossible task. They’ll resort to resisting, obstructing, and denying everything. Their handmaidens in the press will continue to deceive you about the law.

And Joe Biden? He’ll invoke the infamous Sergeant Schultz excuse that he knows nothing. Given his diminished mental acuity, that may turn out to be his only viable defense.

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