Senate panel votes to subpoena in Hunter Biden probe

Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden(Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

WASHINGTON — The Senate dove back into its election-year investigation of the Biden family Wednesday as a committee voted on party lines to subpoena a consulting firm for the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden served on the board.

The firm, Blue Star Strategies, worked for Burisma, the company that President Trump tried to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate while Trump held up foreign aid to the at-war nation.

"We need to get to the truth about the Bidens' relationship with Burisma, and these hearings will provide the Senate with the full picture," Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said before the vote.

Vice President Joe Biden, left, with his son Hunter, at the Duke Georgetown NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010, in Washington. (Nick Wass/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Trump and his defenders insist there is a nefarious connection between Hunter Biden and Burisma, and that Joe Biden got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to stop a probe into the company. Biden did lean on Ukraine to remove the prosecutor, but it was at the behest of the administration and European allies who regarded the official as corrupt.

No evidence has suggested Joe Biden did anything other than carry out U.S. policy, although Trump and his allies have pointed to Hunter Biden's lucrative board fees to suggest impropriety.

Democrats on the committee blasted the vote as a purely partisan stunt, noting that the consultant was already providing material sought by the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, and had volunteered to make officials at the firm available for interviews.

Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., gavels a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee meeting to a close on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 20, 2020, after voting to issue a subpoena to Blue Star Strategies. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Firm co-founder Karen Tramontano reaffirmed that intention in a letter sent Wednesday.

“At every opportunity, we have indicated to the Committee that it is our intention to cooperate,” she wrote. “At no time have we ever stated or indicated in any way that we would not cooperate. Therefore, we are puzzled, despite our willingness to cooperate, why the Committee is proceeding to vote on a subpoena.”

A spokesman for the committee countered, however, saying in a statement that the company only became cooperative after the committee announced the subpoena vote."Their only real efforts came after we noticed this markup, and we know even those have been woefully incomplete," said a statement. “The American people deserve to know the extent to which the U.S.-based, Democrat-led consulting company leveraged its connections within the Obama administration to try to gain access to and influence U.S. government agencies on behalf of its corrupt client, Burisma.”

Ranking Member Gary Peters., D-Mich., speaks to a reporter at the conclusion of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 20, to vote to issue a subpoena to Blue Star Strategies. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Democrats hammered the move as aiding a false, Russia-spawned conspiracy endorsed by President Trump that it was Ukraine that interfered in the 2016 election, not Russia.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) slammed it in a Senate floor speech before the vote as "a theory that attempts to re-write the history of Russian interference in the 2016 election to match the fiction in President Trump’s head."

"It seems Senate Republicans want to dive into the deepest muck of right-wing conspiracy to invent scapegoats for the president to use in his re-election campaign," Schumer said.

The top Democrat on the committee, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters castigated Republicans for diverting attention from coronavirus response to carry out their election-year smear.

“At a time when Americans need us to work together, this extremely partisan investigation is pulling us apart,” Peters said. “This is not a serious bipartisan investigation in the tradition of this committee. And I do not believe we should be going down this dangerous road.”

Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said if Democrats are right that the case against the Bidens is baseless, they should welcome a thorough probe.

"The question I would ask is, what is everybody worried about?” Johnson asked. “If there’s nothing there, we’ll find out there’s nothing there, but if there’s something there, the American people need to know that.”