‘Hunter Biden began ‘following’ then-Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken … on Twitter, indicating that the two may have initiated conversations…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) A day after announcing the conclusion an investigation led by the Justice Department inspector general, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, said he planned to investigate the Burisma scandal involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting all pertinent correspondence between the Bidens and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Graham honed in on the period of time in February 2016 immediately before prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin tendered his resignation under pressure from Poroshenko.
Shokin reportedly submitted his resignation in or around Feb. 16, 2016, according to contemporary reports.
Democrats leading an impeachment hearing against President Donald Trump for pushing Ukraine to reopen its Biden investigation have falsely claimed that Burisma, the energy company that paid Hunter Biden a “consulting” fee to be on its board of directors, was not under investigation at the time of Shokin’s firing.
However, Shokin himself has indicated under sworn affidavit that he was pressured to drop the investigation, due directly to Biden’s influence.
Graham said in his letter to Pompeo that on Feb. 2, 2016, Shokin had raided the home of Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevksy. Two days later, Shokin seized property from Zlochevksy.
“It is also my understanding that on February 4, 2016, Hunter Biden began ‘following’ then-Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, a longtime advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, on Twitter, indicating that the two may have initiated conversations regarding Prosecutor General Shokin’s investigation into Burisma,” Graham wrote.
That was followed by a series of phone calls between Joe Biden and Poroshenko from Feb. 11-19, Graham said in the letter. Biden boasted during a 2018 panel that he had met with Ukrainian officials and threatened to withhold a billion-dollar loan if they did not fire Shokin.
John Solomon, a prominent conservative reporter with outlets including The Hill, previously disclosed documents obtained via open-records requests that top State Department officials had discussed meeting with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, another Burisma board member and business partner of Biden’s at Rosemont Seneca Partners who had advised then-Secretary of State John Kerry.
As Democrats in the House conclude the investigatory phase of their Ukraine probe, with the likely outcome being articles of impeachment against Trump, Graham’s investigation of the Bidens may figure prominently into a Senate trial to determine whether to remove the president from office.
GOP leaders in the Senate have said they plan to subpoena for testimony several witnesses who will dispel the Democrats’ narrative, including the Bidens and an unnamed “whistleblower” widely presumed to be CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Democratic presidential hopeful, insisted in one of her frequent late-night talk show appearances Thursday that there was nothing to see in the Burisma probe, calling Graham’s letter a “bunch of BS” and calling on Republicans to “leave Joe alone.”