Sen. Rand Paul sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr on Thursday, requesting that he take a look at the GOP-led investigation into the Bidens.
The letter came after a report released on Wednesday by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Finance Committee detailed the business dealings of Hunter Biden, who was employed by a Ukrainian energy firm at the same time his father was serving as the U.S. vice president.
“After reviewing (the report’s) findings, I call on the Department of Justice to expeditiously launch a criminal investigation into the activities exposed in this report,” Paul wrote.
The Kentucky Republican added that the report raised “legitimate questions” and allegations of financial dealings that could have prompted hostile foreign powers to leverage influence in the federal government.
Senate Republicans have long sought information into Biden’s lucrative position at the allegedly corrupt Burisma Holdings, where he held a board position in 2014.
Burisma was run by Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, which Republicans said, “created an immediate potential conflict of interest” when it came to the United States trying to implement Ukrainian policy.
The 87-page joint report, titled Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns, characterized Biden’s role as “problematic” but found no evidence that U.S. policy was influenced by it. The report noted Biden’s position at the firm reflected awkward optics during a time when the U.S. was actively trying to clean up corruption in Ukraine.
“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,” the report reads. “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.”
Paul’s request to the Justice Department came shortly after Rep. Jim Jordan pressed Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray about whether his agency was looking into the findings of the report.
Biden’s role in the company first came to light in a 2019 phone call President Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which sparked a whistleblower complaint and led to the president’s impeachment in the Democrat-controlled House. Trump was later acquitted in the GOP-led Senate.
The Biden campaign has dismissed the investigation as politically motivated ahead of a highly contested presidential election between Joe Biden, who remains leading the race in national polls, and Trump.
