GOP set to release controversial Biden report
Republicans are preparing to release a report in a matter of days on their investigation focused on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, a move they hope will put fresh scrutiny on the Democratic nominee just weeks from the election.
The controversial probe, spearheaded by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), is focused broadly on Obama-era policy and Hunter Biden's work for Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.
The GOP report, which is set to be released this week, is expected to argue that Hunter Biden’s work impacted Obama-era Ukraine policy and created a conflict of interest given then-Vice President Joe Biden’s work in the area.
No evidence has indicated criminal wrongdoing by the Bidens. A narrative, seized on by President Trump, that Biden worked to oust Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin to protect his son has been widely discredited, though Hunter Biden has said joining the board was “poor judgement.”
“I think it’s time for the American people to see what we’ve got,” said Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Though he’s argued for months that his probe isn’t being driven by the 2020 election, Johnson has teased the forthcoming findings as damaging to Biden’s political prospects and placed it in the context of the rapidly approaching November election.
“[W]hat our investigations are uncovering, I think, will reveal this is not somebody we should be electing president of the United States," Johnson said in an interview with local Wisconsin radio station WCLO.
The release of the report will come days before the first debate between Biden and Trump, with the president’s allies likely to seize on the probe's findings and Johnson hoping it sparks new scrutiny by the media.
The report was initially expected to be released in July, but Johnson has faced delays in getting documents and interviews for the investigation.
The document, according to Johnson, is expected to also include a section of unanswered questions he has for the Bidens.
The Wisconsin Republican's remarks talking up the report while blasting Biden's electoral prospects have poured fuel onto bipartisan concerns that Johnson is using his chairman's gavel to target Trump’s political enemies.
In addition to an investigation focused on the Bidens, Johnson and Grassley are separately investigating the FBI’s Russia probe, “unmasking” and leaks from the early days of the Trump administration.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a member of Johnson’s committee and the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, warned that the Biden-Burisma probe was a “political exercise.”
“It’s not the legitimate role of government for Congress, or for taxpayer expense to be used in an effort to damage political opponents,” Romney said.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/517161-gop-prepares-to-release-controversial-biden-report