House Republicans are exploring ways to issue criminal referrals against President Joe Biden and people close to him as doubts are growing about whether there will be enough votes, even among members of their party, to impeach him.
Lawmakers have been sending letters to the Department of Justice, seeking investigations on the president, his family, and associates in connection with alleged specific crimes, which would also go along with former President Donald Trump's promise to prosecute Biden if he defeats him in November's election, reports The New York Times.
"There's nothing that I've heard in the last couple of weeks that says that we are anywhere close to having the votes [for impeachment]," said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., who authored the resolution authorizing the impeachment investigation.
Bringing criminal charges would also avoid a repeat of the House Republicans' push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The first vote to impeach the secretary failed, and a second vote barely passed.
Armstrong said that House Republicans instead can seek charges that include alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act in connection with Biden's son Hunter Biden's foreign business deals. He also suggested that the DOJ investigates accusations of obstruction.
"I'm still interested in why we haven't gotten better answers on the whole-of-government approach to obstructing all of these investigations," he said.
House Republicans pushing for impeachment, though, have said they are not finished with that investigation and have scheduled another public hearing for next week, this time with Hunter Biden's former business partners. The president's son has declined to attend.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said he is demanding the audio recordings of Biden's interviews with special counsel Robert Hur into his handling of classified documents. He also said that criminal referrals remain an option.
Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., also said that "accountability" for the president "looks like criminal referrals."
"If Merrick Garland's Department of Justice won't take any potential criminal referrals seriously, then maybe the next president, with a new attorney general, will," he told Fox News in a recent interview.
The dwindling GOP majority in the House may also hinder reaching an impeachment vote. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., is leaving next week, leaving Republicans holding the majority with 218 representatives in the 435-member chamber.
Speaker Mike Johnson has also confirmed that party leaders are talking about criminal referrals, but added that "there's more deliberation to be done on it."
However, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said it makes little sense to seek criminal referrals against Biden, as "we don't refer a seated president for criminal charges."
The Republicans can refer Biden's family members for criminal charges based on what the committee investigations have revealed, he added, "but most of what we've discovered they already knew."