Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) signaled Thursday that he could force a vote in the U.S. Senate that would impel Hunter Biden to testify as part of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
“I believe very strongly the president should be able to call his own witnesses,” Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill, reported Politico. “The rules that are put forward will be amendable, so yes I will consider strongly that the president should get his full due process, which to me means being in his own witnesses.”
The vote would require a majority, which meaning Democrats would need several Republicans to cross party lines to defeat the measure — an unlikely scenario as GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber remain united against impeachment, minus such members as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
The House Democrats’ impeachment probe was prompted after a so-called “whistleblower” — a CIA analyst who worked with then-vice president Joe Biden in the Obama White House — filed a complaint in which it was claimed President Donald Trump committed wrongdoing by requesting the leader of Ukraine to probe allegations of corruption against the Biden family. The younger Biden was paid $83,333 monthly as a board member of Burisma Holdings, a prominent Ukrainian gas firm marked by allegations of corruption, while his father was vice president. The elder Biden played a key role in forcing out former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin as he was investigating Burisma. The former vice president boasted to the Council of Foreign Relations last year that he had threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid unless the prosecutor was fired.
Paul’s comments come after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called on fellow Republicans on Wednesday to avoid calling for testimony that could spark a showdown with Senate Democrats.
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