(NewsNation) — Two Republican senators are demanding Secretary of State Antony Blinken turn over records related to his communications with Hunter Biden, alleging the top U.S. diplomat lied to Congress more than two years ago about his knowledge of Biden’s association with a Ukrainian gas company.
Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa sent a letter to Blinken on Tuesday requesting he turn over the records by May 15. They claim he lied in a Dec. 22, 2020 interview with the two senators’ staff when he denied communicating with Biden in years prior.
Johnson and Grassley at the time were investigating Biden family’s foreign business dealings, including Hunter Biden’s work on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. He joined the board in 2014 and left in 2019.
At that time, Blinken was serving in the Obama administration first as deputy national security adviser and later as deputy secretary of state.
“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,” Johnson and Grassley wrote to Blinken in the Tuesday letter.
They cite emails from 2015 and 2016 that were allegedly found on Biden’s laptop, which was left at a computer repair shop in 2020 and has been turned over to authorities. Information found on the laptop was reported on in the leadup to the election, which federal officials at the time said was a Russian disinformation campaign.
“Although you denied having any knowledge that Hunter Biden was associated with Burisma, emails reportedly from Hunter Biden’s laptop reveal that your wife, Evan Ryan … corresponded directly with Hunter Biden (from her personal email address) in an apparent attempt to connect you with representatives of Burisma’s US lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies,” the senators wrote.
“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,” they added.
Lying to Congress is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok said Tuesday on “CUOMO” this doesn’t appear to meet the bar for such a punishment.
“I think there’s a difference between catching somebody in a criminal act and catching them in a politically problematic act,” Strzok said. “It would have to be a knowing and willful act, and I think, frankly, based on what we know now, that’s a long way away from the facts.”
The letter to Blinken comes on the heels of congressional testimony from an ex-CIA official who said the Joe Biden presidential campaign played a role in allegedly suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Michael Morell told Congress it was Blinken, then one of the campaign’s senior advisers, who was the driving force behind a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials claiming the story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Blinken denied he had any role in that letter during an interview Monday with Fox News.
“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.
