- GOP Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley are accusing President Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken for providing ‘false testimony’
- Emails show Blinken and his wife attempted to influence U.S. government officials on behalf of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma
By KELLY LACO, EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF POLITICS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 07:44 EDT, 2 May 2023 | UPDATED: 11:22 EDT, 2 May 2023.
GOP Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley are accusing President Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken of providing ‘false testimony’ to Congress related to the president’s son Hunter’s Burisma business dealings.
In a letter to Blinken Monday, obtained by DailyMail.com, the senators wrote that the false statements occurred when he sat for an interview before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in December 2020.
Blinken was still working for the Biden campaign at the time and aiming for the secretary of state job.
‘On December 22, 2020, you provided false testimony to Congress during your voluntary transcribed interview,’ the senators wrote.
‘As part of our ongoing investigation into the Bidens’ business dealings, you agreed to participate in an interview with our staff to discuss your relationship with Hunter Biden, among other topics.
At the start of that interview, our staff reminded you of the statute that makes it a crime to lie to Congress. You acknowledged your understanding of that statute and stated that there is no reason you would be unable to provide truthful answers during the interview,’ the letter continues.
The senators state that based on emails from Hunter’s laptop and other records and information that is now more widely available, Blinken’s 2020 statement to Congress was blatantly false.
‘Your statement to Congress that you did not email Hunter Biden is clearly not true and calls into question the veracity of your entire December 22, 2020 testimony,’ the senators state.
‘Based on evidence now available, your above statement is patently false. Emails contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop and recent reports have revealed that you did in fact email Hunter Biden on at least two occasions, contradicting what you told congressional investigators.’
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., included an email from May 22, 2015 as an example.
The email shows Hunter Biden writing to Blinken’s personal email address requesting to meet to get your ‘advice on a couple of things,’ to which the now-secretary of state replied: ‘Absolutely.’
Another email from 2016 show that Hunter and his business associate Eric Schwerin were directed to ‘please call Evan Ryan … Hunter — she tried your cell earlier and it went straight to vm[.].’
‘It seems highly unlikely that you had no idea of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma while your wife was apparently coordinating with Hunter Biden to potentially connect you with Burisma’s U.S. representatives,’ the senators followed up by writing.
The senators’ letter to Blinken follows a report by DailyMail.com revealing that Blinken and his wife, Joe Biden’s cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, were both embroiled in an alleged attempt to influence U.S. government officials on behalf of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma.
Blinken told Senate investigators under oath in 2020 that he had ‘no knowledge of Hunter Biden’s service on the board’ of Burisma, and didn’t know about Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat consultancy hired by the firm in 2015 to improve its image in Washington D.C.
But State Department emails show he spoke with Blue Star’s CEO Karen Tramontano at a political event around July 2016 while he was Deputy Secretary of State, and agreed to have a coffee with her to discuss ‘some troubling events we are seeing in Ukraine’.
The government and laptop emails obtained by DailyMail.com suggest Blinken may have been more aware of Hunter’s dealings than he has let on.
The senators note the Blue Star connection, writing: ‘State Department documents obtained during our investigation make it clear that you were concurrently trying to connect with representatives from Blue Star Strategies.’
If proven to be true, providing false statements to Congress carries a prison sentence of up to five years.
The senators are demanding ‘all records, referring or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings’ be handed over by May 15.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the State Department for a response to the letter.
Last week, former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell told the House Judiciary Committee that he was asked by Blinken to help discredit the Hunter Biden laptop reporting.
Morell coordinated letter signed by over 50 former intelligence chiefs claiming that Hunter Biden‘s laptop was Russian ‘disinformation’ because he wanted to help Joe Biden‘s 2020 presidential campaign.
However, Blinken has directly denied his role in the letter, saying that he didn’t ‘ask for it’ or ‘solicit it.’
In an interview with Fox News’ Benjamin Hall Monday, the secretary of state denied his involvement.
‘One of the great benefits of this job is that I don’t do politics and don’t engage in it. But with regard to that letter, I didn’t – it wasn’t my idea, didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it. And I think the testimony that the former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morrell, put forward confirms that,’ Blinken said.
House Republicans are now probing the Biden campaign’s role in the creation of the letter.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner asked Blinken last week to provide their committees his communications with Morell around the laptop.
‘Based on Morell’s testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story and preventing American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election,’ Turner and Jordan wrote.
Also on Monday, Johnson slammed Blinken for telling a ‘boldface lie’ to Congress about his communications with Hunter Biden after it his emails with the first son were revealed.
‘Now, because of more information that’s come out, we know that he lied boldface to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden,’ Johnson told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo Monday.