Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) canceled the vote that was scheduled for today on a subpoena surrounding a probe into Hunter Biden and Burisma.
“Out of an abundance of caution, and to allow time for you to receive additional briefings, I will postpone a vote to subpoena records and an appearance from former Blue Star Strategies consultant Andrii Telizhenko about his work for the lobbying firm,” Johnson said in a note to committee members, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill.
Johnson told reporters that there was a discrepancy in the information that they had been told.
“There were issues raised,” Johnson said. “There were discrepancies in what had been told in one briefing versus the next briefing, and then even greater discrepancies in staff notes.”
The committee was set to vote along party lines regarding a subpoena to Telizhenko, and was expected to pass.
Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) was voicing objections of the Democrats that there was a partisan effort to damage Trump’s political opponents, questioning whether it was part of a Russian misinformation campaign.
Johnson indicated he would be targeting Blue Star Strategies as opposed to Telizhenko.
“While we work through those questions, at the suggestion of both Republican and Democrat Committee members, we will instead go straight to the source and compel the same records and an appearance directly from Blue Star Strategies,” Johnson added in the message to committee members.
Johnson said he was hoping to not hear objections from Senator Peters, adding that if there was an objection, it would again go to a vote, which would not likely happen this week.
Johnson and Chuck Grassley have been for months looking into the discredited story that then VP Joe Biden fired Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin to protect his son.
Andrew Bates, spokesman for the Biden campaign, said Johnson should be focusing his efforts on the outbreak of the Coronavirus instead of a de-bunked conspiracy theory.
“In fact, Senator Johnson himself, joined by other Republicans, endorsed Joe Biden’s work to get this corrupt prosecutor fired and signed a letter supporting that effort in 2015. He has as much credibility on this issue as Bernie Madoff did on pension funds,” he added.
