When the first hearing of the House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden kicks off Thursday, a familiar face will be front and center. But this time, he will be a congressman in his own right.
Just four years ago, Rep. Dan Goldman was the lead impeachment lawyer for House Democrats, as they pursued President Donald Trump for the first time over allegations he leaned on Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, who was a presidential candidate at the time.
“The president placed his personal interests above the nation’s interests in order to help his own re-election efforts,” Goldman told lawmakers during a hearing in December 2019.
Four years later, Goldman is now a member of Congress and poised to play an outspoken role as Republicans begin their impeachment inquiry into the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Once again, Ukraine and the business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter loom large.
“A lot of the subject matter of this investigation overlaps with the subject matter of the first impeachment inquiry, which I worked very hard on,” Goldman said in an interview.
Goldman, a freshman lawmaker representing parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which is one of the three GOP-led panels assigned by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to conduct the inquiry.
Just nine months into his term, Goldman says he is “shocked but not surprised” that the GOP has launched the investigation, arguing this has been the goal of the “extreme MAGA right” since the beginning.
“They have manufactured a bogus impeachment inquiry on pure lies. None of the evidence supports any of the allegations they are making,” Goldman said.
In advance of the first hearing, Goldman has already claimed headlines, leaning on his experience as a lawyer to question witnesses in public and private settings.
In July, he was one of only a few lawmakers — and the sole Democratic member — who participated in the committee’s closed door interview of Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer. The transcript of the interview shows him asking dozens of questions.
“After yet another two hours, there still is no connection of any of Hunter Biden's business dealings with President Biden,” Goldman told reporters on the day of the deposition.
Messaging is poised to be another of Goldman’s roles.
During the Archer deposition, for example, Goldman actively engaged with the reporters gathered outside, allowing him to proactively define what happened in the room — including that Archer agreed that Hunter Biden was selling the “illusion of access” to his father.
Goldman is also a familiar face on cable news.
“I think it's very important to aggressively push back on the baseless lies that are coming out of the Republicans. They do not seem to have any problem promoting conspiracy theories, outright lying about what the evidence is and what the evidence says,” Goldman said of the Democratic messaging strategy.
Goldman said he considers the top Democrat on the House Oversight committee, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, a mentor.
In a statement, Raskin called Goldman “a great lawyer, a hard-working Congressman and a treasured friend.”
“He’s one of a big group of extraordinary freshman Democratic members on the Oversight Committee, but he has the unique experience of having served as counsel to the first House impeachment effort against Donald Trump. Dan’s knowledge of that impeachment process and his prosecutorial expertise are major assets in our work,” Raskin said.