Panel vote advances Hunter Biden inquiry
WASHINGTON — A Senate committee moved Wednesday to subpoena documents related to the son of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice Presi- dent Joe Biden.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the subpoena on a party-line vote, more than two months after its chairman, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., indicated that he planned to seek the documents concerning Hunter Biden’s work for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Also on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that prosecutors have opened a criminal inquiry into leaked tapes that allegedly feature the country’s former leader discussing conditions for a $1 billion loan with Joe Biden.
Johnson’s quest has generated objections from Democrats, who argue that the inquiry is simply an election-year witch hunt meant to sling mud at President Donald Trump’s likely November opponent. Some, including the committee’s top Democrat, have suggested that Johnson is serving as an unwitting pawn in a Russian disinformation campaign.
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said Wednesday that the panel is “going down a dangerous road” at a time of a national crisis from the coronavirus pandemic.
“At this moment when Americans need us to work together, this extremely partisan investigation is pulling us apart,” he said.
After the vote, Johnson defended the investigation. “The question I would ask is: What is everybody worried about? If there’s nothing there, we’ll find out there’s nothing there. But if there’s something there, the American people need to know that,” he said.
Republicans have increased their efforts to investigate the administration of former President Barack Obama — a campaign that they say is meant to uncover malfeasance in targeting Trump when he was a candidate and president-elect for unwarranted investigation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is seeking a list of Obama administration officials who may have sought to reveal the names of Trump-connected figures in anonymized foreign-intelligence dragnets — an effort that could advance a narrative that the former president and his allies conspired to inappropriately target Trump, one that Trump has dubbed “Obamagate.”
Trump has urged Republicans to pursue the investigations targeting the Obama administration and said earlier this year he would make Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine a “major issue” in the general election.
Johnson’s subpoena targets documents and testimony in the custody of Blue Star Strategies, a lobbying firm that acted on behalf of Burisma and employed Andrii Telizhenko, a Ukrainian linked to the energy company. Burisma employed Hunter Biden as a board member, paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars for a position that he has acknowledged was the result, at least in part, of his father’s famous name.
At the time Hunter Biden served on Burisma’s board, his father was acting on behalf of the Obama administration to combat corruption in Ukraine. Some Trump administration officials testified under oath during the impeachment inquiry that Joe Biden did nothing wrong.
In a letter to the panel Wednesday, Blue Star said there was no reason a subpoena would be necessary: “At no time have we ever stated or indicated in any way that we would not cooperate. Therefore, we are puzzled, despite our willingness to cooperate, why the Committee is proceeding to vote on a subpoena.”
Johnson said Wednesday that he disputed that claim and moved forward with the subpoena. He indicated earlier this year that he plans to issue a report about Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma and Ukrainian matters before the election.
The tapes at the center of the Ukrainian criminal inquiry and which are yet to be authenticated, were released Tuesday by Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, who long has aired unsubstantiated corruption accusations against Biden and his son.
The Ukrainian investigation was opened on treason and abuse-of-office charges, indicating it was mostly directed against former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko rejected the tapes as a fabrication by pro-Russia forces in Ukraine.
There was no immediate sign that the investigation could be directed against Biden. The prosecutor general’s office gave no further details.
In a Facebook statement, Poroshenko said the tapes were fabricated and described their release as part of a Kremlin-driven effort to “undermine bipartisan support of Ukraine in the United States.”
He called Biden a “friend and ally of Ukraine.”
The Biden campaign declined to comment on the latest Ukraine developments.
Information for this article was contributed by Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post; and by Yuras Karmanau of The Associated Press.