Impeachment hearing: Republicans promise revealing evidence

House Republicans opened their impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden on Thursday with allegations he had lied about the business dealings of his son, Hunter.

Republican James Comer of Kentucky, the Oversight Committee's chairman, said there was "a mountain of evidence" against Mr Biden.

But expert witnesses said there was not yet enough proof for impeachment.

The hearing comes three days before a possible government shutdown.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a formal impeachment inquiry in early September to look into allegations that Hunter Biden engaged in improper business dealings that benefited the president.

At the first hearing in the inquiry, Chairman Comer said his committee would examine more than "two dozen pieces of evidence", including emails and bank records, which he said would reveal Joe Biden's "corruption and abuse of public office".

"At least ten times, Joe Biden lied to the American people that he never spoke to his family about their business dealings," he said. "The American people demand accountability for this culture of corruption."

Mr Biden has previously said he "never" discussed business with his son.

Republicans on the committee, though, say Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer told them during a closed-door hearing that Mr Biden had attended at least two dinners with his son's business associates.

But Mr Archer also testified that he had never heard business discussed during those encounters.

Scepticism about the evidence came from an unlikely source at the hearing - Republicans' expert witnesses.

Two of the three conservative analysts called to discuss Mr Biden's alleged wrongdoing told lawmakers they did not believe there was enough evidence to warrant impeachment.

"I am not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud or wrongdoing," forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky said. "More information needs to be gathered before I can make such an assessment."

Meanwhile, law professor Jonathan Turley told the panel "I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment".

Calling the inquiry a "sham" and an "embarrassment", Democratic committee members sought to refocus the hearing on the looming shutdown and propped up a digital clock counting down to the Saturday deadline when the federal government will run out of money unless Congress reaches a budget deal.

"We're 62 hours away from shutting down the government of the United States of America and Republicans are launching an impeachment drive, based on a long debunked and discredited lie," said Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the panel.

A handful of spectators in the hearing room appeared to share those criticisms, sporting white T-shirts printed with a photo of Chairman Comer and the words "NO EVIDENCE".

Hunter Biden has been criminally charged with three counts of lying when buying a firearm, after a proposed plea deal collapsed this past summer. But Republicans have so far found no hard evidence of misconduct by the elder Mr Biden.