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By Katherine Fung
Senior Writer
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Democrats on the House Oversight Committee highlighted information that was received by congressional lawmakers during former President Donald Trump's first impeachment as evidence that the Republican-led probe into President Joe Biden's alleged ties to his son Hunter's business dealings lacks standing.
The committee's ranking member, Representative Jamie Raskin, wrote a letter to Chairman Representative James Comer on Thursday, arguing that a transcript of a conversation between a Ukrainian oligarch and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is "clear evidence that then-Vice President Biden's actions carried out the policy of the United States, its allies, and its international partners to combat corruption in Ukraine."
Republicans have been persistent in pursuing their investigation, casting doubt over Biden's conduct as vice president during the Obama administration and insisting that he in some way influenced foreign policy in exchange for money.
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The transcript of the conversation between Mykola Zlochevsky, the oligarch who founded the oil and gas company that hired Hunter Biden to serve on its board, and Giuliani shows that the Ukrainian businessman testified that the then-vice president never assisted Burisma Holdings with any business deals or meetings during his son's stint with the company.
The Ukrainian executive was not identified by GOP lawmakers, but some, like committee members Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Anna Paulina Luna, said it is Zlochevsky. But if Zlochevsky is the foreign national that Republicans have hinged their allegations on, the testimony that Democrats pointed to could contradict the document that Republicans are demanding the FBI release.
Asked about Hunter Biden's 2015 meetings with the State Department, Zlochevsky said that the company "never approved or asked him to conduct those meetings on behalf of Burisma."
"No one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden's engagements," he testified.
Newsweek reached out to Comer for comment.
The transcript is the latest setback for the congressional probe. Since Republicans have lobbied their bribery allegations at Biden, they've also said that they've lost track of their informant's whereabouts and questioned the existence of the audio tapes that they claimed capture Biden talking to the Ukrainian executive.
"Of all of Comer's efforts to impugn Joe Biden, though, the allegation about a bribe from Ukraine is among the flimsiest," Philip Bump, a national columnist for the Washington Post, wrote in a Thursday analysis. "As time passes, one would expect evidence to accrue that it had happened. Instead, evidence is accruing that it didn't."
Even after Hunter Biden reached a plea deal with the Justice Department for failure to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon, Comer vowed that his committee's investigation would continue.
"I've said from day one: This is an investigation of Joe Biden. So what happened today really doesn't matter," Comer told Politico upon learning of the deal this month.
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