A new interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees released Wednesday shows at least two members of the Obama administration raised red flags over Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas firm, while his father, then vice president, was in charge of U.S. policy toward the country.
“Even though Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board cast a shadow over the work of those advancing anticorruption reforms in Ukraine, the Committees are only aware of two individuals who raised concerns to their superiors,” the 87-page report says. “Despite the efforts of these individuals, their concerns appear to have fallen on deaf ears.”
Those two individuals were identified as State Department official George Kent and Amos Hochstein, the former U.S. special envoy and coordinator for International Energy Affairs.
Kent’s concerns, raised with the vice president’s office, went unaddressed. He described the situation as being “very awkward” in an email to colleagues in September 2016: “Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.”
Hochstein, for his part, spoke to Vice President Biden and Hunter about his concerns with Biden on the board of Burisma. According to the executive summary, he feared the placement “enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine.”
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who knew about Hunter's role at Burisma, later denied "knowledge about any of that" during a 2019 town hall in New Hampshire, but the report details "evidence to the contrary."
#Burisma NOW: 87 page, joint report from @ChuckGrassley + @SenRonJohnson investigates potential conflict of interests involving Hunter Biden. Central Finding: Hunter Biden's position on Burisma "was problematic" + "did interfere" with the execution of Obama-era Ukraine policy pic.twitter.com/BDrUV241sK
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 23, 2020
The report also looked at Biden’s financials, including his relationship with the founder of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky. The report notes Biden, his family, and his business partner Devon Archer “received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds.”
OUT TODAY: Report with @chuckgrassley found millions of dollars in questionable financial transactions between Hunter Biden & his associates and foreign individuals, including the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. https://t.co/R1MxQ4xGKP
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) September 23, 2020
- Archer received $142,300 from Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan, purportedly for a car, the same day Vice President Joe Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea.
- Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow.
- Hunter Biden opened a bank account with Gongwen Dong to fund a $100,000 global spending spree with James Biden and Sara Biden.
- Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People’s Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow.
Additionally, U.S. Treasury Department records “show potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals,” the report reveals.
From Johnson-Grassley report on Hunter Biden: https://t.co/KsaQad5F1k pic.twitter.com/ava3V9PyTB
— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 23, 2020
Biden is also shown to have paid women linked to what appears to be an “Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring,” according to the summary.
The report comes less than one week before the first presidential debate.