Two top Senate Democrats released a report on Wednesday to counter the findings released by their Republican counterparts from an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine.
Sens. Gary Peters, the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, accused the chairmen of their respective committees (Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa) of pushing Russian disinformation to help President Trump win his reelection campaign against the former vice president.
Peters called the GOP findings, which alleges the Obama administration turned a blind eye to the “glaring warning signs” when the younger Biden joined the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings while his father was leading Ukraine policy, “a partisan, political report that is rooted in Russian disinformation and intended to influence the presidential election.”
“Worst of all — the chairmen have amplified a known Russian attack on our election, and have used the credibility of the United States Senate to advance these discredited narratives, despite warnings from the Intelligence Community, the national security experts they interviewed over the course of their investigation, and Trump administration officials,” he added. “It is unconscionable that the chairmen are continuing to advance false information intended to undermine our democratic process at the expense of the bipartisan work we should be doing to protect our national security.”
The Democrats claim the GOP investigation mimics the accusations from U.S.-sanctioned Russian agent Andrii Derkach and that their own investigation, which included more than 50 hours of transcribed interviews of 10 witnesses, debunked the notion that Hunter Biden’s role on the board gave the company special privileges.
“More than 200,000 Americans are dead, and more than 25 million are out of work as a result of Donald Trump’s incompetence,” Wyden said in a statement, referring to the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. “Donald Trump can’t run on his unprecedented failures, so the Trump administration and Senate Republicans tried — and failed — to manufacture dirt on Vice President Biden. Vice President Biden did nothing wrong, and policy toward Ukraine did not change while Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma. This sham investigation was an attempted political hit job facilitated by the State Department and rooted in the disinformation pushed by a pro-Russia operative and Russian asset who is under U.S. sanction. Throughout this effort, I have been deeply disturbed by Senate Republicans’ willingness to disregard national security concerns and push Russian disinformation. The Senate must never again be abused in this way.”
Johnson and Grassley have rejected claims that their investigation was steeped in Russian disinformation and argued they were focused on rooting out corruption. But Johnson conceded last month that the inquiry would have political implications for the election less than two months away.
“I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden,” he said.
