WASHINGTON — Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson has backed down from holding a vote to subpoena an ex-Ukranian official as part of his investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden amid concerns from Democrats and some Republicans.
“We will continue to iron out the discrepancies that were raised over the last couple days, and I can’t really get into much more than that,” the Wisconsin Republican told reporters.
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Johnson was seeking documents of Andriy Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian embassy official who consulted for consulting firm Blue Star Strategies, which represented Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings when Hunter Biden served on the company’s board. Telizhenko has been a key figure in pushing the narrative of alleged Obama administration corruption in Ukraine and alleged Ukraine interference in the 2016 election.
Johnson sent a note to committee members on Wednesday shortly before the vote was to take place saying that “out of an abundance of caution” he will allow more time for the congressional panel to receive additional briefings before it moves forward.
The chairman told members that he would “instead go straight to the source and compel the same records and an appearance directly from Blue Star Strategies.”
It appeared the subpoena might advance out of the committee when Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said last week that he would support the move after initially expressing reservations. The sudden change of plans is the latest development in the Senate Republicans’ investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, which Democrats have alleged is a politically motivated effort to harm the front-running Democratic presidential candidate.
Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates on Wednesday slammed the investigation as “alarming and deeply troubling.”
“Senator Johnson is diverting the attention and taxpayer-funded resources of the Senate Homeland Security Committee away from the coronavirus outbreak, which was just designated a global pandemic, to clutch at a conspiracy theory that every fact-checker has debunked,” Bates said.
Kyle Stewart contributed.