GOP Senator Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley accuse Antony Blinken, Secretary of State to President Biden, of giving “false testimony” to Congress in connection with the business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter, in Burisma.
In a letter to Blinken Monday obtained by DailyMail.com, the senators wrote that the false statements occurred when he sat for a transcribed interview before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in December 2020 — while still working for the Biden campaign and aspired to the post of Secretary of State.
“On December 22, 2020, you gave false testimony to Congress during your voluntary transcribed interview. As part of our ongoing investigation into the Bidens’ business dealings, you agreed to participate in an interview with our staff to discuss, among other things, your relationship with Hunter Biden,” the senators wrote.
“At the beginning 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 that you should not be able to provide truthful answers during the interview,” the letter continues.
The senators argue that based on emails from Hunter’s laptop and other data and information now more widely available, Blinken’s statement to Congress in 2020 was blatantly false.
In a letter to Blinken Monday, the senators wrote that the false statements occurred when he sat for a transcribed interview in December 2020.
Blinken told Senate investigators under oath in 2020 that he had “no knowledge of Hunter Biden’s service on the board” of Burisma
“Your statement to Congress that you did not email Hunter Biden is clearly untrue and casts doubt on the veracity of your full testimony of December 22, 2020,” the senators said.
“Based on evidence now available, your above statement is patently false. Emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop and recent reports have shown that you did indeed email Hunter Biden at least twice, contradicting what you told congressional investigators,” said Grassley, R-Iowa and Johnson, R-Wis., including an example of a May 22, 2015 communication.
The email shows Hunter Biden writing to Blinken’s personal email address asking to meet to get your “advice on a number of things,” to which the now secretary of state replied, “Absolutely.”
The senators’ letter to Blinken follows a DailyMail.com report showing that Blinken and his wife, Joe Biden’s cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, were both involved in an alleged attempt to influence U.S. government officials on behalf of Ukrainian gas company 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 knew nothing about Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat consultancy hired by the company in 2015 to image in Washington. DC
But State Department emails show that he spoke to Blue Star CEO Karen Tramontano at a political event around July 2016, when he was deputy secretary of state, and agreed to have a cup of coffee with her to to discuss “some of the disturbing events we are seeing in Ukraine.”
The government e-mails and laptop obtained by DailyMail.com suggest that Blinken may have known more about Hunter’s dealings than he let on.
If proven true, providing false statements to Congress is punishable by up to five years in prison.
The senators are demanding that “all documents referring to or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings” be delivered by May 15.
DailyMail.com has contacted the State Department for comment on the letter.
Last week, former CIA acting director Mike Morell told the House Judiciary Committee that he was asked by Blinken to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop report.
Morell co-ordinated a letter signed by more than 50 former intelligence chiefs claiming Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian “disinformation” because he wanted to aid Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
However, Blinken immediately denied his role in the letter.
In an interview with Fox News’ Benjamin Hall Monday, the secretary of state denied involvement.
Johnson says Blinken told Congress a “brazen lie” about his communications with Hunter Biden
‘One of the big advantages of this job is that I don’t do politics and I don’t get involved in it. But as for that letter, I didn’t – it wasn’t my idea, I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t ask for it. And I think the testimony put forth by former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell confirms that,” Blinken said.
House Republicans are now investigating the role of the Biden campaign in drafting the letter.
Jim Jordan, chairman of House Judiciary, and Mike Turner, chairman of House Intelligence, asked Blinken last week to give their committees his communications with Morell via laptop.
Also on Monday, Johnson criticized Blinken for telling a “brazen lie” to Congress about his communications with Hunter Biden after his emails with the first son were exposed.
“Now, because of more information that has come out, we know he blatantly lied to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden,” Johnson told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Monday.