GOP Representative Lauren Boebert showed up late to Wednesday's impeachment hearing, walking into the meeting after missing an initial vote that was recorded during the House Oversight Committee's meeting.
During the hearing, the recorded vote was called at the request of Ranking Member Jamie Raskin after House Republicans moved to table Raskin's offer of a motion to subpoena the phones of Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden.
The hearing comes amid a Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and his family, a probe that is facing increasing pressure to move forward with an impeachment after months of work. But at this time it remains unclear who could be charged and exactly over what offense.
At the time that the initial vote on the motion was called, Boebert appeared to be missing from the room. The Colorado Republican was among the dozen or so lawmakers who did not vote during the roll call. After that first vote, Chairman James Comer asked the clerk to clarify how the votes for Boebert and six other members were recorded, allowing those lawmakers a chance to cast a belated vote.
At that point, Boebert was seen walking into the room with her belongings. When the clerk stated that "Ms. Boebert is not recorded," the congresswoman said "aye" before taking her seat next to GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Republican Representatives Mike Turner, Pat Fallon and Eric Burlison also voted "aye" after being called on again, while Democratic Representatives Katie Porter and Maxwell Frost voted belated "nays."
Newsweek reached out to Boebert via email for comment.
With a party-line vote of 21 "ayes" and 16 "nays," the motion was tabled. GOP Representatives Paul Gosar, Virginia Foxx, Scott Perry, Tim Burchett, Lisa McClain, and Anna Paulina Luna's votes were not recorded. Neither were those of Democratic Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton, Cori Bush, Shontel Brown and Melanie Stansbury.
Asked about waning support within the GOP for an actual impeachment, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan told CNN on Wednesday, "The Constitution doesn't put a limit on how much time it takes to do your duty of oversight of the executive branch.... We're just going to keep doing our work, and then the conference will make a decision."
On Wednesday, lawmakers heard from Bobulinski, who was in the room, and Jason Galanis, another Hunter Biden business associate, via Zoom. Galanis is in an Alabama prison, serving a 14-year sentence for securities fraud. Comer had invited the two men to appear alongside Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, another former business partner, both of whom declined the invitation.
House Democrats also called Lev Parnas, a onetime Rudy Giuliani associate, as a witness.
Parnas, who has criticized the impeachment allegations, told the committee on Wednesday, "The only information ever pushed on the Bidens in Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents. The impeachment proceedings that bring us here now are predicated on false information spread by the Kremlin."
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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
