Ahead of the vote, Democrats took to the House floor to denounce Republicans for engaging in what they described as a conspiracy-fueled fishing expedition designed as retribution for the two impeachments of former president Donald Trump. Republicans, meanwhile, argued that the administration was obstructing their investigation by failing to fully comply with the committees’ subpoenas, and accused the president of lying about his involvement with his son’s foreign business dealings.

“Hunter Biden did a press conference — he was supposed to be in a deposition,” said House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “And at that press conference, he said ‘my father was not financially involved in the business.’ Well, that’s an important qualifier. We haven’t heard that for three years. … All we’ve heard is Joe Biden had no involvement. Now his son does a press conference when he’s supposed to be being deposed and says he wasn’t financially involved. Well, what involvement was it?”

The foundation of the impeachment inquiry, outlined by Jordan in a briefing with reporters last week, rests on an unsubstantiated allegation that has become the linchpin of conspiracy theories and false claims regarding the Biden family’s purported corrupt and criminal conduct. Republicans have alleged without evidence that Joe Biden as vice president pushed for the firing of Ukraine’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to quash a probe into the former owner of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden sat on the board. Former U.S. officials, Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, and even some Republicans have rebutted that allegation.