Impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden

On September 12, 2023, Kevin McCarthy, the then-speaker of the United States House of Representatives, announced an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The inquiry was conducted by the House's Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees. James Comer, chairman of the Oversight Committee, was named to lead the investigation. Speaker McCarthy had twelve days earlier said an inquiry would require a majority House vote. He initiated the inquiry stating that recent House investigations "paint a picture of corruption" by Biden and his family. No congressional investigations had yet discovered any evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden himself. The inquiry held a public hearing on September 28, 2023. Despite neither the earlier Comer committee investigation nor the impeachment inquiry finding evidence of wrongdoing by the president, on December 13, 2023, majority House Republicans unanimously approved a resolution to formalize the inquiry. Democrats unanimously voted against the resolution. On February 15, 2024, the FBI arrested and charged Alexander Smirnov, who was the central figure in bribery allegations against Joe Biden for lying to investigators and fabricating an uncorroborated story to damage Biden's reelection campaign, and that "officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved" in manufacturing the story.