‘It’s a good thing that no one’s found anything wrong with his dealing with Ukraine except they say it sets a bad image…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., formally requested the travel records of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The request could signal the start of a formal Senate investigation into alleged corruption with the Bidens’ foreign business dealings in Ukraine and China.
Grassley, who is the chairman of the Senate Finance Commitee, and Johnson, who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray this week requesting the travel documents
The request came as part of a probe into “potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama administration,” according to The Washington Post.
“We write to request information about whether Hunter Biden used government-sponsored travel to help conduct private business, to include his work for Rosemont Seneca and related entities in China and Ukraine,” the senators wrote.
The senators requested information on what sort of security detail Hunter Biden received while his father served as vice president, and a list of dates and places Hunter Biden went to with service detail. They also requested information on whether Hunter Biden traveled on government aircraft while making business trips.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma were called into question after investigative journalist Peter Schweizer brought them to broader public awareness in March 2018, shortly before Joe Biden announced his long-anticipated presidential candidacy.
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, former mayor and federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani, then began to investigate the Ukraine dealings.
Trump’s request that newly-elected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reopen the “dormant” investigations formed the basis of House Democrats’ recent impeachment efforts.
During the Senate impeachment trial, Trump’s legal defense team argued that abuse-of-power charges were invalid since there was legitimate reason to believe Hunter Biden, with the help of his father, was engaged in corruption in the region. Trump was acquitted by the Senate on Wednesday.
Joe Biden—who pressured the previous Ukraine administration to fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma by threatening to withhold a billion-dollar U.S. loan guarantee—has denied any wrongdoing and has continuously dismissed questions about his son.
“It’s a good thing that no one’s found anything wrong with his dealing with Ukraine except they say it sets a bad image,” Biden said last week when asked if Hunter Biden’s business dealings were wrong. “Well, he said he regretted having done it. Speak for yourself. He’s a grown man.”