Ukraine Investigation
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Last week Senator Johnson and I released our report about our investigation into potential conflicts of interest with respect to Ukraine policy during the Obama administration. My Democratic colleagues have attacked this investigation with unsupported and inaccurate allegations that this investigation is rooted in a foreign-sourced influence campaign. They have asserted that our oversight activities relating to the Obama administration are advancing a Russian disinformation campaign and have implied that we are ``wielding that disinformation as a political cudgel.'' Nothing could be further from the truth, so I want to explain.
My Democratic colleagues have publicly insinuated that I received the records from a Ukrainian national, Andriy Derkach, a Russian agent who has taken action to influence and interfere in the 2020 election.
Now, get this: I have praised the Treasury Department for sanctioning Derkach. I have neither received nor solicited information from Derkach. This is probably the third time I have come to the floor of the Senate to say this. Yet you still keep getting these accusations from my friends on the other side of the aisle. Now, the Democrats know that we have not received this information. Yet they refuse to stop repeating their false insinuations, and those false insinuations have resulted in Russian-based media repeating the Democratic disinformation, which is Exhibit A why the Democrats should have never created that false narrative in the first place. In fact, during the course of this investigation, the minority--not the majority--of the committee introduced Derkach's disinformation into the committee record.
Foreign election interference should have no quarter in this country, and we must do everything to stop that interference. If only the Democrats felt the same about the Steele dossier, which is the very definition of Russian disinformation and election interference.
Our investigation is based upon Obama administration government records and records from a Democratic lobby shop, Blue Star Strategies. They aren't based on any information that we received from a fellow by the name of Derkach. So if my Democratic colleagues think that those records amount to Russian disinformation, then that says more about the previous Obama administration than it does about the Johnson-Grassley inquiry.
Do you think my Democratic colleagues would have attacked an investigation involving Donald Trump, Jr.? Remember, I interviewed the President's son years ago as part of my Russia investigation. I didn't hear any complaints about my investigative work at that time. Funny how this has played out, right?
My Democratic colleagues have jammed up document production from government agencies and engaged in questionable political media efforts. We would have been done with this investigation a long time ago if all that opposition hadn't occurred, but here we are, and now the American people can see our work and judge our work for themselves.
I would like to remind my Democratic colleagues that the first step in this investigation was a letter that I wrote on August 14, 2019. That letter was about an Obama-era Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States transaction. That transaction gave control over an American company that made anti-vibration technologies with military applications to a Chinese Government-owned aviation company and a Chinese-based investment firm with established ties to the Communist Chinese Government. Reports indicated that a firm formed by Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz, the stepson of John Kerry, later partnered with a Chinese-based firm to purchase the American company.
Also at that time, Joe Biden was Vice President and John Kerry was Secretary of State. The State Department is an approval agency on the Committee on Foreign Investment.
Clearly, this transaction presented conflicts of interest, and that is exactly why I wrote the letter of August 2019 to the Treasury Department.
My Democratic colleagues like to say that we started this investigation as a result of the Trump impeachment. Well, the last time I checked, August 14, 2019, was well before the impeachment investigation began. That letter was also sent before Congress was notified of the Ukrainian-related whistleblower complaint and before it was made public.
No matter how hard the Democrats try to say otherwise, this investigation is rooted in nothing but simply good government oversight. That is exactly the type of investigation I have run my entire Senate career.
After the August 2019 letter, news reporting picked up the pace about Hunter Biden's association with Burisma, the corrupt Ukrainian company, and the fact that his father was in charge of the Obama administration's anti-corruption policy for Ukraine.
Now, just think about that for a second. Vice President Biden was responsible for carrying an anti-corruption message to Ukraine on behalf of the U.S. Government. At the same time, his son was making millions of dollars working on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian company.
To any reasonable observer, that is a very questionable fact pattern that deserves attention, and it got a lot of attention besides from Grassley and Johnson. Documents made public as a result of the Freedom of Information Act and investigative reporting brought very fresh public attention and scrutiny to this fact pattern.
Reporting showed additional potential conflicts of interest with respect to Hunter Biden's business dealings all over the world, not just Ukraine. Those financial dealings also exposed how Hunter Biden and his business associates sought to benefit financially from their relationship with Vice President Biden.
As our report shows, Hunter Biden and his business associates had extensive connections to Russian or Ukrainian nationals. Their business association also extended to Russian nationals.
The report also shows that Hunter Biden, his family members, and business associates had extensive connections to Chinese nationals. The records acquired by the committee show that Hunter Biden and his associates and family members were connected to Chinese nationals associated with the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army. Those connections formed business links, which resulted in millions of dollars passing through company after company.
Some of those companies were associated with Hunter Biden, his business partner Devon Archer, and James Biden. The records show deep and complex financial relationships with Chinese nationals and how financially fruitful those relationships became.
As one example, records show that Hunter Biden opened a bank account with a Chinese national linked to the Communist regime and funded with approximately $100,000. Then he, James Biden, and Sarah Biden went on an extravagant global spending spree. Records show that Hunter Biden, via his law firm, also sent over a million dollars to James Biden's consulting firm, the Lion Hall Group. When the bank contacted Sarah Biden, who was associated with the firm's bank account, she refused to answer the questions and provide any additional information and documentation. According to records we have on file, the bank submitted the account for closure.
Now, what is very clear is that Hunter Biden leveraged his name and his father's position for financial gain, and his work with Burisma is just the tip of the iceberg.
These associations and the millions of dollars that passed between and among Hunter Biden, Archer, James Biden, and others create criminal financial concerns. Moreover, they create counterintelligence and extortion concerns.
The investigation also uncovered that the Obama administration was well aware of the problems that Hunter Biden's board position caused. State Department officials testified that his board membership created the perception of a conflict of interest and was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Kerry publicly denied knowing of Hunter Biden's role on the Burisma board. Now, we have acquired evidence that he did, in fact, know about that role.
The owner of Burisma was viewed as an ``odious oligarch'' by State Department officials. However, in December of 2015, instead of following U.S. objectives of confronting oligarchs, Vice President Biden's staff advised him to avoid commenting on the odious oligarch and instead say ``I am not going to get into naming names or accusing individuals.''
Well, if you are running an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine and you pull your punches when it comes to Burisma while your son is on the board, that goes to judgment--and here it looks like very bad judgment and weak leadership.
Based on witness testimony, Burisma's owner allegedly paid a $7 million bribe to officials serving under Ukraine's prosecutor general to shut the case against him. When he allegedly placed the bribe in December 2014, Hunter Biden was on the board and--can you believe this--he had been hired to be on the board to assist with what they call ``corporate governance and responsibility.'' Obviously, he wasn't doing his corporate job--due diligence.
The facts show that the Obama administration was well aware of the problems that Hunter Biden being on the Burisma board caused. The facts show that the Obama administration turned a blind eye to it. Everyone knew about the problems it caused, but nobody wanted to do anything about it. So much for leadership.
At its core, the investigation is a good government oversight investigation. These are exactly the kinds of shady, backroom deals that the American people should know about. So now the facts are out there. The American people can judge this information for themselves. They don't need the people on the other side of the aisle of this institution telling them what went on when they were using disinformation from Russia and spreading that disinformation around and trying to say it was attributed to something that we got.
As for the next step, Senator Johnson and I will continue to review the records that we possess and further records that we hope we are able to acquire.
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