Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is casting doubt on an investigation into Hunter Biden and Burisma.
“There’s no question but that the appearance of looking into Burisma and Hunter Biden appears political, and I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations,” Romney, 72, told reporters in Washington on Thursday.
“I would hope that if there is something of significance that needs to be evaluated that it would be done by perhaps the FBI or some other agency that’s not as political as perhaps a committee of our body,” he added.
Romney said he planned to speak to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) later in the day and that he might still vote to approve a subpoena Johnson said he was seeking against a former associate of Biden, the son of former Vice President and leading Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden.
Romney, the only Republican senator to vote to impeach GOP President Donald Trump, could block the subpoena if he votes against it, joining six Democrats on the committee. A Romney vote would likely cause a 7-7 tie.
Hunter Biden, 45, was on the board of the Ukrainian-based Burisma for five years, including years while his father was still in office.
Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told members of the committee that he would seek to subpoena Andrii Telizhenko, a former consultant for Blue Star who has said he wants to cooperate in a probe but is currently limited by a nondisclosure agreement.
Democrats have repeatedly resisted and condemned efforts to probe Biden.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the ranking member on the committee, said in a statement that Republicans could be helping Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 election by taking further action against Biden.
“We need to take every step to ensure the credibility and resources of the U.S. Senate are not used to advance interference efforts by foreign adversaries that seek to undermine our democracy or put our national security at risk,” he said in a statement.
Johnson responded by saying: “Any concerns about disinformation efforts is simply not relevant to whether or not the committee should seek to obtain these specific records.”
A vote on the subpoenas will take place “in the near future,” Johnson said.
Appearing on Fox News’ “The Story” this week, Johnson noted that his investigation into possible corruption in the Obama administration uncovered a number of documents, including most of the texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and Department of Justice lawyer Lisa Page.
“It’s not our fault that Joe Biden, Hunter Biden got wrapped up in the whole Ukrainian story,” Johnson said. “We are not closing our eyes to this. And I have no idea why anybody would object to us obtaining records from a U.S. consulting firm run by former Clinton administration officials that is basically using Hunter Biden’s name to strongarm the State Department to curry benefits for a corrupt Ukrainian oil company.”
