President Donald Trump’s impeachment may be over—but some Republicans still can’t let the president’s desire to investigate Joe Biden go. Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, who chair the Senate Homeland Security and Finance committees, respectively, are forging ahead with an investigation into Biden and son Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine, a conspiracy theory that has been widely debunked. The senators have continued to request documents in the investigation and coordinate possible witness interviews as recently as this month—but not all their Senate GOP colleagues agree with the politically-charged investigation.
Politico reports that Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr privately “expressed concerns” about Grassley and Johnson’s Biden probe to the lawmakers in December, warning that their investigation could be playing right into Russia’s hands. Burr reportedly told the senators that they “could aid Russian efforts to sow chaos and distrust in the U.S. political system” by investigating Biden, Politico reports, underscoring the division within the GOP over whether to give Trump what he wants by investigating his political rivals. (When asked whether they had met or worked with Burr on the Biden probe, Grassley told Politico, “No, I haven’t. And I haven’t had any conversation with him either.” Johnson said only, “We talk about things.”) Russia, which intelligence officials have said is once again interfering in the 2020 election to help elect Trump, has already shown signs of attempting to take down Biden through the conspiracy theory at the heart of Trump’s impeachment and the Senate investigation. Russian hackers have successfully hacked into a server for Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden served, which experts told the New York Times was likely to search for damaging information on Biden ahead of 2020. The GOP efforts to investigate Biden, then, could play into Russia’s election interference efforts—and potentially involve documents that the Russians have manipulated through their misinformation campaign. “I think it’s amazing that people are still potentially viewing manipulated Ukrainian information. That is not in our national security interest,” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, a Democrat, told Politico. “There is plenty in the public domain that Russia was behind a lot of these fables and stories.”
Even noted Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has expressed reservations about how Russia could interfere in any Biden investigation efforts. Graham initially moved toward launching an investigation into the Bidens back in November during the impeachment hearings, though Politico notes he has since declined to join Grassley and Johnson’s probe. In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation earlier this month, Graham said that he “think[s] questions about the conflict of interest regarding Hunter Biden in the Ukraine need to be asked,” but pushed for matters regarding Ukraine to be handled by the Department of Justice and intelligence officials who could better suss out Russian interference. “After talking to the attorney general and the intelligence chairman that any documents coming out of the Ukraine against any American, Republican or Democrat, need to be looked at by the intelligence services, who has expertise I don’t because Russia is playing us all like a fiddle,” Graham said, after declaring he’s “not gonna be the Republican Christopher Steele.” Sen. Mitt Romney, the lone Republican senator to vote for Trump’s conviction, also expressed doubts about the Senate investigation, telling Politico, “I don’t know whether there’s any there there. I don’t know that they do either.”
As Republicans continue to push the efforts at the heart of Trump’s impeachment, however, Democrats are taking clear steps to show they’re ready to move on. Even as they still keep open the possibility of investigating Trump or subpoenaing John Bolton, the House Intelligence Committee signaled Thursday its intention to wrap up its impeachment efforts as Daniel Goldman, the attorney who played a major role during the House impeachment hearings, announced he was ending his role with the committee and returning to New York. Goldman, whose departure follows those of House Democratic advisers Barry Berke and Norm Eisen earlier this month, had been tapped as the committee’s director of investigations in 2019, before stepping into the national spotlight in the fall with his questioning of House impeachment witnesses. His departure suggests that post-impeachment, House Democrats are now ready to ease off their significant oversight of the president, which has been a major focus for the House since Democrats assumed the majority in early 2019. In a statement to CNN, Goldman said it was “an honor of a lifetime” to work with committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff and the committee to “help provide a vital check on the President, as the Constitution requires Congress to do.” “I know that the committee’s work will continue apace under Chairman Schiff’s leadership,” Goldman said.
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