House impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden have reached a boil with new subpoenas against his brother James, his son Hunter, and one of Hunter’s business associates. As a scholar and practitioner of impeachment, I believe these subpoenas and the underlying proceedings they reflect are flawed, both legally and factually. If tested in court, the subpoenas will likely be struck down and the impeachment itself is doomed when it reaches the Senate — if it even makes it that far.
The most basic problem with the subpoenas is that you need to have a House vote formally authorizing an impeachment inquiry to issue impeachment-related subpoenas. In the first impeachment of Donald Trump, where I served as special counsel to House Democrats, we went to great lengths to secure such authorization for just that reason. Such a House vote has not happened here, meaning that enforcement of these subpoenas may prove problematic, to say the least.
