House Republicans are demanding testimony on Dec. 7 from a top prosecutor on the Hunter Biden investigation as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president, according to a subpoena reviewed by POLITICO.

The House Judiciary Committee, helmed by Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed Lesley Wolf — a prosecutor in the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office — on Tuesday. The panel is investigating allegations of political interference in the federal investigation into Hunter Biden. Prosecutors reached a plea deal with Biden’s lawyers this summer that fell apart after scrutiny from a judge. The Justice Department then charged the president’s son in September with illegally owning a gun while a drug user.

Two IRS agents who worked on the Justice Department’s investigation into the president’s son have accused Wolf of stymieing their efforts to fully investigate the Biden family. They also told lawmakers she directed investigators to remove a reference to Joe Biden from a search warrant and that she blocked the team from searching his home.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment on the subpoena. Special Counsel David Weiss, who is running the probe, defended Wolf this month in a closed-door interview with the Judiciary Committee.

“I believe she is an excellent lawyer and is a person of integrity,” he said, later adding that political concerns did not shape her decisions.

Wolf is the latest person at the receiving end of a battery of subpoenas from House Republicans. The Oversight Committee subpoenaed Hunter Biden, James Biden, and several other members of the Biden family earlier this month.

The Judiciary Committee has also held a series of voluntary closed-door interviews with Justice Department officials as part of the probe. Those people — including two U.S. Attorneys and two FBI officials — have fielded questions about the scope of Weiss’ authority over the probe, but have withheld details about how investigators made specific decisions, given the probe is ongoing.

Those officials appeared with the Justice Department’s blessing, and accompanied by agency lawyers. But DOJ declined to make Wolf available for a voluntary interview, according to a letter from Jordan. The Department has said its general practice is to refrain from allowing testimony to Congress by line-level employees.

The Biden administration is rebuffing House Republicans’ request to speak with current and former White House officials as part of their impeachment inquiry — and using a Trump-era justification for doing so.

White House counsel Richard Sauber on Friday sent a four-page letter — a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO — to Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), accusing them of issuing an “irresponsible set of subpoenas and requests for interviews” and flip-flopping on whether or not an impeachment inquiry needed a formal vote.

“You also claim the mantle of an ‘impeachment inquiry’ knowing full well that the Constitution requires that the full House authorize an impeachment inquiry before a committee may utilize compulsory process pursuant to the impeachment power — a step the Republican House Majority has so far refused to take,” Sauber wrote in the letter.

Sauber was referring to a Justice Department opinion under former President Donald Trump that declared that impeachment inquiries in the House are invalid unless the chamber formally votes to authorize them.

“For all these reasons, you should reconsider your current course of action and withdraw these subpoenas and demands for interviews,” Sauber added.

At the time, the Trump Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel was pushing back on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to launch an impeachment inquiry against Trump without initially holding a vote for it. Republicans were also deeply critical of Pelosi’s strategy at the time.

While Pelosi did eventually hold a vote weeks later on the inquiry, the opinion gained new attention earlier this year after then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) similarly opened an impeachment inquiry without a vote on the House floor.

"If President Biden has nothing to hide, then he should make his current and former staff available to testify before Congress about his mishandling of classified documents," Comer said in a statement responding to the White House Friday. "We are not deterred by this obstruction and will continue to follow the facts and hold President Biden accountable to the American people.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans have ramped up their subpoenas as part of their multi-pronged investigation into Biden and his family.

Comer subpoenaed former White House counsel Dana Remus and requested interviews with four White House officials earlier this week. Republicans are seeking the testimony as part of a probe into Biden’s handling of classified documents, which is also being investigated by a special counsel.

But in a letter to Remus’ attorney, Comer and Jordan tied that probe to their larger impeachment inquiry, which has been largely focused on the business deals of Biden’s family members. Comer has also subpoenaed Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James Biden, as well as requested voluntary interviews with other family members.

Republicans are months into that probe. And while they have uncovered examples of Hunter Biden trying to use his last name to further his business deals — and poked holes in some of Biden’s and the White House’s previous statements — they’ve struggled to find a smoking gun that would link Joe Biden’s official decisions to his family’s business deals.

Something close to a holiday miracle is cooking in Washington: It now appears a question of when, not if, the Senate will pass Speaker Mike Johnson's "two-step" short-term government spending patch.

No Senate votes are scheduled yet on the measure, but with Thanksgiving looming — and the vibes very much off on Capitol Hill — it wouldn't surprising if jet fumes move the process along.

"I’m happy the House passed this bill that excludes hard-right partisan cuts and poison pills with a strong bipartisan vote. I’ll now work with Leader McConnell to pass this bipartisan extension of funding as soon as possible," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement following House passage Tuesday.

McConnell, by the way, also endorsed the legislation on Tuesday: "It’s nice to see us working together to prevent a government shutdown."

While we wait: Senators are expected to vote on a disapproval resolution this afternoon from Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on President Joe Biden's latest student loan repayment plan.

Over in the House: Lawmakers will continue work on two spending titles — the Labor-HHS-Education funding bill and the Commerce-Justice-Science measure.

More fireworks on the horizon? The House Homeland Security Committee meets at 9 a.m. to hear from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for a hearing on threats to the homeland. That comes just a couple days after the House narrowly punted an effort to impeach Mayorkas.

A small number of House Republicans sided with Democrats in moving to punt an effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed the motion last week, leapfrogging Republican leadership to force the vote. It threw newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson into a messy debate that fires up a disgruntled party base but doesn’t unite his razor-thin majority.

A total of eight Republicans voted with Democrats on Monday night to send Greene’s resolution to committee, effectively pigeonholing it for now.

While Johnson has said he supports what would be a historically rare impeachment for a Cabinet official, he’s also having to contend with a coalition of frontliners, old-school conservatives and governing-minded pragmatists who aren’t yet sold that Mayorkas has actually committed an impeachable offense.

GOP Reps. Cliff Bentz (Ore.), Ken Buck (Colo.), John Duarte (Calif.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Darrell Issa (Calif.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Patrick McHenry (N.C.) and Mike Turner (Ohio) voted with Democrats to refer to the resolution to committee.

The fight also comes five days before a potential government shutdown, sparking private grumbling that Greene’s resolution is badly timed. She had filed it late last week, forcing it to come to a vote for consideration within two legislative days.

Greene hinted over the weekend that she thought leadership was working to kill her resolution either by tabling it or trying to refer it to a committee. Ahead of Monday’s vote, she warned that “a vote with the Democrats is a vote AGAINST impeachment.”

She added after her resolution was sent to committee Monday night that she could force the impeachment vote again, predicting the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats will come under pressure from voters to flip their position.

"I can assure you that Republican voters will be extremely angry," Greene said.

Mayorkas was once viewed as the conference’s top impeachment target. But that effort has been pushed out of the spotlight — and from most GOP lawmakers’ attention spans — by a sweeping investigation into President Joe Biden, not to mention a weeks-long speaker fight that ground the House to a halt.

The Homeland Security Committee is also months into its own border investigation, releasing “phase four” of its findings on Monday. Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) has said he intends to complete his five-step investigation before making a decision on whether to make an impeachment referral to the Judiciary Committee. Green voted against sending the resolution to committee Monday night.

Democrats, and even some Republicans, have criticized the impeachment effort, arguing that the disagreements with Mayorkas amount to policy differences not high crimes or misdemeanors.

“Every day, the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security work tirelessly to keep America safe. They need Congress to stop wasting time and do its job by funding the government, reforming our broken immigration system, reauthorizing vital tools for DHS, and passing the Administration’s supplemental request to properly resource the Department’s critical work to stop fentanyl and further secure our borders," a department spokesperson said Monday.

But unlike when Republicans easily referred to a resolution to impeach President Joe Biden to committee earlier this year, impeaching Mayorkas sparks division within the conference. Some of the Republicans who voted against sending the resolution to committee haven't come out in support of impeaching Mayorkas, meaning there's likely a larger pool of opposition within the GOP conference.

But Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), from a border district, confirmed to POLITICO that he has been trying to build support for impeaching Mayorkas among moderate and swing-district Republicans.

“I am tired of Americans and migrants dying in my district," he said.

Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.

House Oversight Chair James Comer is issuing more subpoenas, this time related to his investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents.

Comer (R-Ky.) subpoenaed former White House counsel Dana Remus on Monday, as well as a request for transcribed interviews with four White House employees. In a letter to an attorney for Remus, Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) link Biden’s handling of classified documents to the larger GOP Biden impeachment investigation, which centers around his family’s business deals.

Republicans are months into that probe. And while they have uncovered examples of Hunter Biden trying to use his last name to further his business deals — and poked holes in some of Biden and the White House’s previous statements — they’ve struggled to find a smoking gun that would link Joe Biden’s official decisions to his family’s business deals.

Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Robert Hur to serve as special counsel for an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents, which were first found at the Penn Biden Center.

The White House said last month that Biden had taken part in an interview as part of the investigation.

Joe Manchin will not seek reelection to the Senate, a move that essentially cedes his seat to the GOP in deep-red West Virginia and removes one of Congress' most prominent centrist voices in either party.

The Mountain State Democrat won his seat in 2010 and hung on since then thanks to a moderate brand that's given him one of his party's most conservative records. As he prepared to face popular West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) in a potential Senate race next fall, however, the incumbent senator decided to pack it in after reaching the peak of his influence over the last three years.

"I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate,” Manchin said in a video statement on Thursday afternoon that jolted Capitol Hill.

Manchin has repeatedly declined to rule out a third-party run for president, possibly on a ticket funded by the deep-pocketed group No Labels. He indicated that he may not be leaving the political scene entirely, saying that he will be "traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle."

Democrats are skeptical that he would mount a third-party bid that could hand the White House to former President Donald Trump. But Manchin has vocally criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the party-line tax, climate and health care law he helped shape, the Inflation Reduction Act, and repeatedly criticized Democrats' more progressive course.

Senate Republicans are almost certain to capture West Virginia in light of Manchin’s retirement; there is almost no Democrat in the conservative state with a shot at winning. Justice will face Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) in the GOP primary next year.

“We like our odds in West Virginia,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The Senate map is highly favorable to Republicans, who need to pick up two seats to win the majority in 2024 — or, if they claim the presidency, only West Virginia. Democrats are hoping for serious challenges to Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), buffeting their defenses as they face tough races in Montana, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

“Democrats have multiple pathways to protect and strengthen our Senate majority and are in a strong position to achieve this goal. In addition to defending our battle-tested incumbents, we’ve already expanded the battleground map to Texas and Florida,” said David Bergstein, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Manchin's retirement will continue to hollow out the center of the Senate. His decision follows that of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a fellow cross-aisle dealmaker who has also chosen to retire. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who faces a daunting three-way race if she chooses to run again, has yet to announce her intentions for 2024.

The West Virginian's Senate career is complex: After running on a now-famous ad that depicted him shooting live ammunition at a climate bill, Manchin cut a deal on gun background checks with former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He later tangled with then-President Barack Obama and survived a brutal reelection campaign in 2018 that featured harsh attacks from Trump.

Manchin ended up voting to convict Trump twice in impeachment trials and found his groove when Biden became president. After Democrats' simultaneous Senate takeover, Manchin became the Energy chairman.

Now, Manchin’s fingerprints are all over Biden’s agenda, from a massive bipartisan infrastructure law to the massive 2021 Covid aid. He fought the more progressive version of the party-line social spending bill that Biden initially backed, tanking it in December 2021 and then quietly reshaping it with a lower price tag and more limited scope.

That new law was a triumph for Manchin, delivering money and resources to his state. But it hurt his popularity as Republicans attacked him for supporting its spending and its climate policies.

“Today, West Virginia is attracting more investment, opportunity and jobs than it has in decades,” Manchin said. “After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia.”

Joe Manchin will not seek reelection to the Senate, a move that essentially cedes his seat to the GOP in deep-red West Virginia and removes one of Congress' most prominent centrist voices in either party.

The Mountain State Democrat won his seat in 2010 and hung on since then thanks to a moderate brand that's given him one of his party's most conservative records. As he prepared to face popular West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) in a potential Senate race next fall, however, the incumbent senator decided to pack it in after reaching the peak of his influence over the last three years.

"I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate,” Manchin said in a video statement on Thursday afternoon that jolted Capitol Hill.

Manchin has repeatedly declined to rule out a third-party run for president, possibly on a ticket funded by the deep-pocketed group No Labels. He indicated that he may not be leaving the political scene entirely, saying that he will be "traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle."

Democrats are skeptical that he would mount a third-party bid that could hand the White House to former President Donald Trump. But Manchin has vocally criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the party-line tax, climate and health care law he helped shape, the Inflation Reduction Act, and repeatedly criticized Democrats' more progressive course.

Senate Republicans are almost certain to capture West Virginia in light of Manchin’s retirement; there is almost no Democrat in the conservative state with a shot at winning. Justice will face Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) in the GOP primary next year.

“We like our odds in West Virginia,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The Senate map is highly favorable to Republicans, who need to pick up two seats to win the majority in 2024 — or, if they claim the presidency, only West Virginia. Democrats are hoping for serious challenges to Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), buffeting their defenses as they face tough races in Montana, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

“Democrats have multiple pathways to protect and strengthen our Senate majority and are in a strong position to achieve this goal. In addition to defending our battle-tested incumbents, we’ve already expanded the battleground map to Texas and Florida,” said David Bergstein, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Manchin's retirement will continue to hollow out the center of the Senate. His decision follows that of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a fellow cross-aisle dealmaker who has also chosen to retire. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who faces a daunting three-way race if she chooses to run again, has yet to announce her intentions for 2024.

The West Virginian's Senate career is complex: After running on a now-famous ad that depicted him shooting live ammunition at a climate bill, Manchin cut a deal on gun background checks with former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He later tangled with then-President Barack Obama and survived a brutal reelection campaign in 2018 that featured harsh attacks from Trump.

Manchin ended up voting to convict Trump twice in impeachment trials and found his groove when Biden became president. After Democrats' simultaneous Senate takeover, Manchin became the Energy chairman.

Now, Manchin’s fingerprints are all over Biden’s agenda, from a massive bipartisan infrastructure law to the massive 2021 Covid aid. He fought the more progressive version of the party-line social spending bill that Biden initially backed, tanking it in December 2021 and then quietly reshaping it with a lower price tag and more limited scope.

That new law was a triumph for Manchin, delivering money and resources to his state. But it hurt his popularity as Republicans attacked him for supporting its spending and its climate policies.

“Today, West Virginia is attracting more investment, opportunity and jobs than it has in decades,” Manchin said. “After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer is issuing another round of subpoenas as part of a sweeping impeachment inquiry aimed at President Joe Biden.

It’s the second tranche to come from the panel in as many days, after Comer (R-Ky.) issued subpoenas for the president’s son, Hunter, and brother, James, as well as a business associate of Hunter Biden's on Wednesday.

House Republicans are months into their investigation, which was turned into an impeachment inquiry in September. And while they’ve uncovered examples of Hunter Biden trying to use his last name to further his business deals — and poked holes in some of Biden and the White House’s previous statements — they’ve struggled to find a smoking gun that would link Joe Biden’s official decisions to his family’s business deals.

Who Comer issued subpoenas for on Thursday:

• Business associate Eric Schwerin 
• Business associate Mervyn Yan 
• Gallerist George Bergès 
• Elizabeth Naftali, who reportedly bought a Hunter Biden painting

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is charging ahead with a new move to target the Biden administration: A push to force a vote on whether to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Georgia firebrand isn’t holding back under newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson, eager to put her colleagues on the record over an administration official frequently criticized by the GOP.

The resolution — which is expected to be privileged and therefore guaranteed a floor vote — alleges the DHS chief has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” including failing to faithfully execute his constitutional duties, as well as violating the Secure the Fence Act, which says the Homeland Security secretary must maintain operational control of the border, among others.

The move comes a day after two of Greene’s constituents were killed in a car accident as the driver of a car suspected of carrying smuggled migrants attempted to flee police in Batesville, Texas, according to local authorities.

“This is unacceptable! Alejandro Mayorkas is derelict of his duty to secure our Southern border and my constituents are dying!” Greene tweeted in response.

Mayorkas, who has testified before Congress eight times this calendar year, has strongly rejected what his office has called the GOP's "baseless attacks."

"Instead of continuing their reckless impeachment charades and attacks on law enforcement, Congress should work with us to keep our country safe, build on the progress DHS is making, and deliver desperately needed reforms for our broken immigration system that only legislation can fix," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

Greene isn’t the first Republican to force the House to mull an impeachment charge on the floor. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) introduced articles of impeachment against Biden in June, though House GOP leaders were able to prevent a full House vote by convincing members to delay and refer the measure back to committee.

But unlike a vote on impeaching Biden — which several centrists have sought to avoid — a vote to impeach Mayorkas is less likely to draw such complaints. Even some Republicans in Biden-won districts are signaling they’d support such a move.

“I'm very confident that Secretary Mayorkas has failed in his responsibility. That's like a no brainer,” said freshman Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.).

In fact, House Republicans, led by Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.), have spent most of this year investigating Mayorkas’s department — particularly on what he describes as a mismanagement of border issues — as they lay the groundwork for possible punishment. Green and others have made clear privately that they do intend to impeach Mayorkas, as the GOP’s evidence against him builds.

And Greene's latest push may be a further sign of how the one-time McCarthy ally plans to operate full speed ahead in the weeks leading to come. She has long touted a list of federal officials she wants to impeach, starting with Mayorkas and ending with President Joe Biden.

Johnson’s predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, eventually leaned into supporting impeaching Mayorkas amid pressure from his right wing as he sought to secure the gavel, though he never brought a resolution to the floor.

House Republicans have subpoenaed Hunter and James Biden, the son and brother of the president — a dramatic escalation of their impeachment inquiry.

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) on Wednesday issued the legal demand that the two Bidens appear for closed-door interviews with his panel. Comer also subpoenaed Rob Walker, a Hunter Biden business associate, and requested voluntary interviews with five other people, such as Sara Biden, who is James Biden’s wife, and Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s late son Beau Biden.

It’s the first time House Republicans have directly tried to compel testimony from members of the Biden family as part of their months-long investigation, which former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) escalated to an impeachment inquiry in September. While Comer has previously held closed-door interviews with Hunter Biden business associates, much of his investigation so far has focused on gathering and analyzing bank records.

Comer is demanding Walker appear behind closed doors with the panel on Nov. 29, James Biden on Dec. 6 and Hunter Biden on Dec. 13, according to copies of the subpoenas. And Comer’s suggested he’s willing to try to hold anyone who doesn’t comply with his summons in contempt.

“The House Oversight Committee has followed the money and built a record of evidence,” Comer said in a statement. “Now, the House Oversight Committee is going to bring in members of the Biden family and their associates to question them on this record of evidence.”

Comer, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) are spearheading the impeachment inquiry that is guaranteed to drag into next year, with political risks for both sides as it runs closer to the 2024 election.

While Republicans have uncovered examples of Hunter Biden trying to use his last name to further his business deals — and poked holes in some of Biden and the White House’s previous statements — they’ve struggled to find a smoking gun that would link Joe Biden’s official decisions to his family’s business deals.

Comer has recently pointed to two checks — one for $200,000 and one for $40,000 — from James and Sara Biden to Joe Biden, with Republicans saying both funds have their origins in Chinese companies. Republicans pointed to those checks as proof that Joe Biden benefited financially from his family’s business deals and had knowledge of them. Both checks are from when Joe Biden was out of office.

The White House has repeatedly said that the two checks were loans, with James Biden repaying Joe Biden. Records reviewed by POLITICO show that less than two months before James and Sara Biden made the “loan repayment,” a $200,000 transfer was made from an account that appeared to belong to Joe Biden to James Biden. Similarly, just over a month before James and Sara Biden transferred $40,000, a wire of $40,000 went from an account that appeared to belong to Joe Biden to James and Sara Biden.

The records reviewed by POLITICO were redacted for security reasons, with most of the bank account numbers blacked out. But the last two numbers of the account that belonged to Joe Biden, to which Sara and James Biden gave a total of $240,000, match the last two numbers of the account that initially wired $240,000.

The account, according to records reviewed by POLITICO, is also an attorney trust account based in Wilmington, Del., for a law firm founded by a long-term friend of Joe Biden. Sara and James Biden paid the money back into an account also overseen by the same law firm.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, accused Comer of employing "impressive acrobatic efforts to conceal evidence" in order to support false claims about Joe Biden.

"Most recently, Chairman Comer buried key facts to invent a ridiculous narrative about two simple transactions: short-term loans between two brothers, neither of whom held public office, which were promptly repaid," Raskin said.

Still, Comer argued Wednesday that the committee did not have records in its possession showing that Joe Biden had loaned $240,000 to his brother James Biden. The Kentuckian said the wire transfers are not evidence that the initial money came from Joe Biden, or that they were loans, and accused Democrats and the White House of manipulating data. And he’s pressed the White House to show formal paperwork of the initial loan from Joe Biden.

“That doesn’t say shit. There are a lot of wires from that law firm,” Comer told a small group of reporters. “You don’t know that they are loans. You don't know that they came from Joe Biden.”