Posted on 12/19/2019 11:53:48 AM PST by powermill
Former Obama administration officials are being asked to give interviews to three top Republican Senators about whether they can shed light on allegations surrounding former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company that employed him as a board member.
In a statement on Wednesday, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said they are seeking officials who had worked in former President Barack Obama’s State Department and in Biden’s office.
They are former Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Catherine Novelli, former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Biden energy adviser Amos Hochstein, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, and David Wade, who served as chief of staff to former Secretary of State John Kerry.
“These interview requests continue the chairmen’s oversight efforts … related to potential conflicts of interest and political influence by Ukrainian elements, including the natural gas firm Burisma, which employed Hunter Biden as a board member while his father was vice president and the public face of the Obama administration’s handling of Ukraine,” the statement from the three senators said.
On Dec. 6, the same Republican senators asked for records and interviews with Democratic National Committee consultant Alexandra Chalupa and former Ukrainian embassy official Andrii Telizhenko amid their inquiry into whether Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.
Chalupa and Telizhenko were reportedly involved in Ukraine’s effort to sabotage the campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016, according to an extensive investigative report by Politico, which Grassley cited in July 2017.
Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden attend an NCAA basketball game between Georgetown University and Duke University in Washington on Jan. 30, 2010. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Telizhenko told Politico that the Ukrainian embassy instructed him to look for links between former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trump, and Russia. The Ukrainian embassy in Washington later confirmed that Chalupa sought information regarding Manafort, but it said that Chalupa’s request was rejected.
During the impeachment inquiry, Democrats have claimed Republicans and Trump asserted that it was Ukraine and not Russia that interfered in the election and have denounced it as a “debunked conspiracy theory.” However, Trump and most Republicans haven’t promoted that theory but have said Ukraine may have interfered—along with Russia—in the election.
“Contrary to the popular narrative in the ‘main stream media’ that Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election has been debunked, or ‘no evidence exists,’ there are many unanswered questions that have festered for years,” Johnson said.
The three Republican chairmen requested that Telizhenko and Chalupa give staff-led interviews and requested documents from both.
“While there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, we know that Russia meddled in our democratic processes,” Grassley also said earlier this month. “However, certain reports of collusion and interference involving Ukrainian officials have not been sufficiently examined, and the few answers that have been given are inadequate.”
Johnson and Grassley have previously asked the State Department for documents about any internal information about Hunter Biden and Burisma.
“E-mails recently obtained and made public through a FOIA request indicate that Burisma’s consulting firm used Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board to gain access and potentially influence matters at the State Department,” the two senators said.
They noted that Hunter Biden and a former associate, Devon Archer, started serving on the Burisma board at around 2014, which is when Joe Biden became the Obama administration’s “public face of the administration’s” Ukraine dealings. They cited a report that said their colleague Christopher Heinz, the stepson to former Secretary of State John Kerry, had warned Hunter Biden and Archer about the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Three alleged meetings in 2015 and 2016 are what the two senators are interested in, according to their letter, citing email records. In 2015, Hunter Biden apparently wanted to meet with former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken for “advice on a couple of things.” He also attempted to have a lunch meeting with him several months later.
Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.
Republicans with a spine..well I’ll be damned..let’s see if it actually happens..waiting for the commies to scream “HEY BIDEN DID NOTHING WRONG, he was already exonerated” LOL
I don’t put any faith in Grassley or Graham. They talk a lot. They are very good at writing sternly worded letters but they never follow through.
I have been watching Ron Johnson on the Horowitz hearings. He seems like he really wants to get the bottom off it.
Obammy thinks joe 3030.com has lost his fastball...
Ya know, what the dems have pulled while the President is busy working for the country... may have backfired on them, giving the GOP.. some at least.. a spine to go on.. and get the dirt that has been there long enough. They go after Trump and just maybe biden and obama will get theirs... sweet justice.
Anger will spur.. and I hope the gop is angry at finding out what those “friends” across the aisle is really capable of. And to have a hard working Trump on board has done something.
Kudlow said Trump has shown them how to deal... well, it’s about time isn’t it.
Only 3 ???
Question: Does/did Trump have a reason to say that about dingle?
Just when things go his direction, Trump goes and says something that he should not have. Even if it was deserved, he should NOT do that... the media is talking about it.. and does not make him look better. if that was the reason.. still should not have.
Please, Pres Trump... don’t do things that don’t help... they already think you are nasty...
I am forever a Trump supporter.. just wish he’d not do things that the left run on.
Gropin' Joe insists that Hunter did nothing wrong. Shotgun Joe never mentions himself.
Telizhenko will testify that the meeting where he was told to get dirt on Trump was arranged by Eric Ciaramella. This could mean the whistle blower was actually obstructing justice by conspiring to have a real investigation of Ukraine corruption shut down.
Yeah Grassley let Feinstein pull her stunt with keeping the letter hidden from the committee during Kavanaugh’s hearing.
No consequence for her breaking the rules. Just a rebuke, slap on the hand.
I heard that too about Dingle. He was talking about when he called her after her husband’s death and she was happy and appreciative. Trump was relating that call at the rally and said “she said he is looking down and smiling I know”(about the call) President said, well he might be looking up(referring that her husband might be in hell).
He says these things out of no where. Not sure why he brought up Dingle and his wife at the rally.
Oh and the other thing- I notice the news isn’t talking about that Dem Rep who said President should be impeached then hanged.
They go bat shit crazy over President but no one else when it’s from the Dems.
non religious or non studying religious people many times don’t see a difference in meaning between heaven and hell.. preferring to think there is no such thing as hell. So up or down would be the same as, or no difference.
not enough balls to put high ranking dems in prison or investigate the bidens after he bragged about his crime at the CFR meeting.
FECKLESS. is the simple explanation. Grassley and Graham might, if pressure is applied, compose a friendly letter inquiring about the weather.
They are near worthless public parasites.
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