If House Republicans move ahead with criminal referrals rather than the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, they could still face a dead end, according to retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano on Newsmax.
"If the events that are the subject of the criminal referral took place more than five years ago, the DOJ won't even consider it," Napolitano, the network's senior judicial analyst told Wednesday's "National Report." "It can't consider it. The statute of limitations is an absolute bar, except when the defendant runs out of the country. That is not the case here."
Many of the allegations being made about the president and his son, Hunter Biden, go back several years, and would not fall within the five-year mark, "so a criminal referral for events that happened more than five years ago would be "symbolic," Napolitano said.
Criminal referrals, though, would have a "substantial political effect," but would be rejected by the Justice Department, he added.
"They can't bring a case that occurred outside the statute of limitations," Napolitano said.
The judge's comments came while witnesses, former business associates of Hunter Biden, were testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
"The three witnesses from whom we heard this morning have already been deposed under oath," Napolitano said. "They have given testimony in private in front of committee members and with committee staff there. The committee members have a transcript of what their answers were."
This means that when Chairman James Comer asks a question, he has a "very good idea of what the answer is going to be," Napolitano said.
"The purpose of the hearings today is to expose to the public what the committee already knows," he said. "The goal of the committee is to show that Joe Biden was a conspirator in a scheme illegally to enrich his son and indirectly himself while he was the vice president. That's the key here."
The hearing is also part of the impeachment investigation into Biden, but Napolitano pointed out a president can only be impeached for actions committed while he was in office, not at earlier times.
"I know it seems silly to impeach him now for something he did while he was vice president, but remember one of the punishments for impeachment conviction is to bar the person from ever seeking federal office in the future, so that's the goal in terms of prosecuting the president for any of this," Napolitano said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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