GOP Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley seem to be trying to distract from the impeachment probe into Donald Trump.
Two powerful Republican senators are launching an inquiry into Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter demanding the State Department turn over documents from as far back as 2014 to help back up debunked conspiracy theories pushed by Donald Trump and his allies.
Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — the chairs of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee, respectively — sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding he turn over "all State Department records relating to Hunter Biden," as well as Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company that Hunter Biden consulted for.
The letter suggests that the Bidens corruptly tried to oust the prosecutor general of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin, writing in the letter that Vice President Biden "bragged about how he was responsible for Shokin's firing" — suggesting that pushing for Shokin's ouster was bad.
However, Johnson himself praised the ouster of Shokin, who had been accused of not weeding out corruption in Ukraine.
Not to mention, the new prosecutor general of Ukraine said the Bidens have done nothing wrong.
"I do not want Ukraine to again be the subject of U.S. presidential elections," Yuriy Lutsenko, the prosecutor general, told Bloomberg News back in May, when news broke that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. "Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws -- at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing. A company can pay however much it wants to its board."
Of course, Giuliani and Trump's efforts to force Ukraine into investigating the Bidens have now become part of a House impeachment inquiry that threatens Trump's presidency.
Republicans have struggled with how to defend Trump from the mounting evidence that Trump abused his powers by withholding hundreds of millions in security aid to Ukraine in order to force them to investigate the Bidens as well as the Democratic National Committee.
Johnson, for his part, has sought to deflect attention from the impeachment inquiry by pushing for investigations of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails, and now of the Bidens.
It's unclear how Pompeo will respond to Johnson and Grassley's request for documents and answers.
The State Department had refused to turn over Ukraine-related documents requested as part of a Freedom of Information Request from a watchdog group but was ordered by a federal judge to turn them over.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
