The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The vote passed along party lines, with all 221 Republican lawmakers voting in favor of the resolution and 212 Democratic lawmakers voting against. Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) previously opened an impeachment inquiry into Biden in September but never formalized the process with a vote of the whole House.

House Republicans announced that, with the formalization of the impeachment inquiry, “the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, House Judiciary Committee, and House Ways and Means Committee [will] continue their ongoing investigations as part of the … inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach President Biden.”

A September 27 memo from the committees leading the impeachment inquiry efforts identified the primary areas of interest as: “(1) foreign money received by the Biden family, (2) President Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s foreign business entanglements, and (3) steps taken by the Biden Administration to slow, hamper, or otherwise impede the criminal investigation of [Hunter Biden].” Republicans have asserted that Joe Biden financially benefitted from his son’s business dealings in Ukraine between 2014 and 2019. Stemming from that, they also claim that Biden then lied to the American public and sought to slow-walk any investigations into his family’s dealings. Evidence uncovered so far has not substantiated such claims.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke to the impeachment inquiry at a press conference on Tuesday, stating:

The impeachment inquiry is necessary now … because we’ve come to this impasse where following the facts where they lead is hitting a stone wall, because the White House is impeding that investigation now. They’re not allowing witnesses to come forward and thousands of pages of documents. So we have no choice.

In response to the allegations and the formalization of the inquiry, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “They’ve gotten 100,000 pages of documents. They’ve interviewed witnesses for 40 hours. And those documents and those witnesses, things they asked for, have actually refuted their false allegations over and over and over and over again.”

Hunter Biden also refuted the claims in an appearance outside of the Capitol Building on Wednesday morning. The same day, Hunter Biden defied a House subpoena to appear before a House committee conducting the impeachment inquiry for a closed-door questioning session. Hunter Biden said, “Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business.” Hunter Biden separately faces two criminal cases, spanning 11 charges in total.

Under the US Constitution, impeachable offenses include treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Three US presidents have been impeached by the House: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump twice, in 2019 and 2021. None of the three presidents were convicted by the Senate and removed from office. Johnson was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited him from removing his secretary of war without the consent of the Senate. He was acquitted by the Senate by a single vote. Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice related to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He was acquitted by the Senate on both charges. Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, and Trump was subsequently impeached for incitement of insurrection, stemming from the January 6, 2021 Capitol Riot. He was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.