Romney said Wednesday that the Ukraine probe “from the outset, had the earmarks of a political exercise.” He voted in favor of the subpoenas on Wednesday, but made a point to note the differences between the investigation into the FBI’s Russia probe that’s looking into the opening of the investigation and “unmasking” requests made in the Obama administration, and the Ukraine investigation that’s targeting Biden. Romney has previously expressed reservations about Johnson’s Ukraine investigation being a political endeavor. Gary Peters of Michigan, charged Wednesday that Johnson’s investigations were “designed to influence the presidential election.” Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said Johnson had “admitted the true purpose of this sham: to bail out Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.” Johnson accused Democrats of spreading disinformation themselves by alleging he was working with Derkach, saying they carried out a “coordinated smear” to “repeat, distort and embellish false charges.”
He denied that he had received any information for the probe from Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, who was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department last week as an active Russian agent spreading disinformation to denigrate Biden. Johnson defended the panel’s investigations at Wednesday’s committee meeting. But that effort was supported by US policy and Western allies, and even Johnson himself backed it at the time. Trump and his allies repeatedly made unfounded and false claims during last year’s impeachment proceedings alleging that Biden and his son acted corruptly in Ukraine, centered around Biden’s push in Ukraine to remove the country’s prosecutor general. “I don’t think it will reflect well on him,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday. Johnson told GOP supporters earlier this week that the probe would show “Vice President Biden’s unfitness for office,” according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Johnson has said he soon plans to release the findings from the GOP-led investigation into Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who was on Burisma’s board. “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 at Wednesday’s committee meeting. Mitt Romney of Utah, expressed concerns that the Ukrainian investigation “had the earmarks of a political exercise.”
The subpoenas approved on a party-line vote Wednesday were separate from the panel’s investigation into a Ukrainian energy firm and former Vice President Joe Biden, which Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson has said he plans to release soon.īut Democrats have accused Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, of using both investigations to try to smear Trump’s opponents ahead of the election – and advance a narrative pushed by Russian-linked operatives to denigrate Biden. The subpoenas – which were sent to such officials as former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former FBI Director James Comey – are the latest sign that the committee is ramping up its probes of President Donald Trump’s political opponents ahead of the November election. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved another round of subpoenas Wednesday for depositions to dozens of officials from the Obama administration as part of the panel’s investigation into the FBI’s 2016 Russia investigation.
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