Senate Panel Prepares To Issue First Subpoenas In Burisma, Hunter Biden Investigation

 

By Emily Zanotti
DailyWire.com

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is preparing to issue a number of initial subpoenas in the panel’s probe into Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian oil and gas company that once employed Hunter Biden as a member of its board of directors, and the organization at the center of a Democratic effort to impeach President Donald Trump.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a letter to members of the Committee late Sunday, according to The Hill, declaring his “intention to schedule a business meeting to consider a committee subpoena.”

That subpoena would reportedly go to Andrii Telizhenko, an individual who worked for Blue Star Strategies, a consulting organization that represented Burisma after it was accused of corruption, per the Daily Caller.

“Telizhenko, who was a consultant for Blue Star from July 2016 to June 2017, has provided some documents to the committee, according to Johnson,” the DC reported Monday. “But he says that he cannot turn over others without a subpoena because they are protected by a non-disclosure agreement.”

“As part of the committee’s ongoing investigation, [the Committee] has received U.S. government records indicating that Blue Star sought to leverage Hunter Biden’s role as a board member of Burisma to gain access to, and potentially influence matters at, the State Department,” Johnson wrote.

“[Telizhenko] cannot provide this responsible information unless he is compelled to do so by subpoena,” the Wisconsin Senator added.

Johnson’s committee is looking into whether Hunter Biden “leveraged his father’s position as vice president to help Burisma, which has long been dogged by allegations of corruption,” according to the DC, but will eventually focus on Burisma’s larger story, including whether the elder Biden leveraged his own relationship with the Obama administration to secure a position with Burisma for his son, Hunter, and whether Burisma ultimately dodged corruption investigations.

The Committee will also look into whether Burisma hired strategists with direct connections to the Biden family and to other powerful Democrats, and whether some of those strategists are still peddling influence in Democratic circles, including within the former Vice President’s current presidential campaign.

“Republicans have homed in on Hunter Biden’s position on the board of Burisma, including seeking to tie then-Vice President Joe Biden’s push in 2016 for the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to Hunter Biden’s business interests,” The Hill said. “They’ve also argued that allowing Joe Biden to work on Ukraine policy while his son was on the board of Burisma was a conflict of interest.”

This investigation may eventually connect to other Senate investigations involving the Biden family. The Senate Judiciary Committee will reportedly be taking a look into whether Democrats used connections in the Ukraine to undermine the 2016 presidential election, something President Donald Trump’s chief counsel, Rudy Giuliani, says he found evidence of during a trip there late last year.

Other Senate panels will be investigating the origins of House Democrats’ allegations against the president, and whether Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and his staff coordinated with a whistleblower who alleged Trump inked a “quid pro quo” agreement with Ukrainian officials over the issue of Hunter Biden’s work within the country.