Senate GOP report: Obama administration 'ignored the glaring warning signs' of Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine
by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter |
| September 23, 2020 07:36 AM
| Updated Sep 23, 2020, 09:04 AM
The Senate Republicans’ controversial report on Joe and Hunter Biden was released on Wednesday, detailing allegations of problematic foreign business dealings by Biden’s son as the former vice president helped lead the Obama administration’s foreign policy. The report also pushes back on Democratic claims of Russian disinformation.
The 87-page joint report by the Republican-led Homeland Security and Finance Committees, titled Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns, is the product of an investigation by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Even before its release 41 days before the presidential election, Democrats claimed the GOP chairmen were working to harm the elder Biden, who is the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, while using Russian disinformation.
Much of the report’s focus is on Joe Biden’s role helping guide the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy while Hunter Biden received a lucrative position in 2014 on the board of an allegedly corrupt Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, run by Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, which the Republicans said “created an immediate potential conflict of interest that would prove to be problematic for both U.S. and Ukrainian officials and would affect the implementation of Ukraine policy." This was an issue that President Trump raised during his July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which sparked a whistleblower complaint and led to impeachment in the Democratic majority House and acquittal in the GOP-led Senate. Johnson and Grassley also delve into other business dealings by Hunter Biden, his business partner Devon Archer, and others in the Biden family, including business dealings tied to Russia and China.
“This is a good-government oversight investigation that relies on documents and testimony from U.S. agencies and officials, not a Russian disinformation campaign, as our Democratic colleagues have falsely stated,†the report says. “What the Chairmen discovered during the course of this investigation is that the Obama administration knew that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine. Moreover, this investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama administration ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president’s son joined the board of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch.â€
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