Congress should have been made aware of the investigations into the “tax affairs” of Hunter Biden as they considered the articles of impeachment against President Trump in 2019, Sen. Ron Johnson said.
“I’m sympathetic for keeping investigations confidential unless there’s an indictment,” the Wisconsin Republican told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“But when you’re talking about investigations within the political realm, particularly one that would have affected the impeachment trial of the sitting US president in the US Senate, that should have been relevant information, the fact that they had Hunter Biden’s computer that had all these emails back in December 2019,” Johnson continued.
The probes into President-elect Joe Biden’s son began in 2018, and a report on Sunday said they extend beyond his time on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, to include his dealings in China.
Subpoenas reportedly seek information from more than two dozen entities he was connected to.
“That was before the trial, that was part of that impeachment, we should have known that,” Johnson said.
Hunter Biden said he wasn’t aware of the investigations until last week.
The House Intelligence Committee held the first public hearing into impeachment on Nov. 13, 2019, and the House Judiciary Committee began hearing testimony on Dec. 4.
The House voted to impeach Trump on Dec. 18, but the Senate acquitted him on Feb. 5.
Attorney General Bill Barr was reportedly aware of the investigations into Hunter Biden but didn’t disclose the information to Congress during the 2020 presidential election.
Trump blasted the country’s top lawman for keeping the investigations under wraps.
“Joe Biden lied on the debate stage, he said there’s nothing happening, nothing happening, and Bill Barr should have stepped up,” the president said during an interview on “Fox & Friends” that aired Sunday morning. “All he had to do is say an investigation is going on.”
Justice Department protocol discourages the release of information about federal investigations near an election to avoid appearances of political interference.
“When I met with the attorney general, it was really talking about the corrupt FBI investigation relating to the Russian hoax, so I don’t believe I ever really talked about our investigations of Hunter Biden, which by the way we never targeted the Bidens,” Johnson said.
“That whole issue was brought forth during the impeachment. That’s when we started expanding our Ukrainian investigation to include his financial dealings, and then when we started seeing all these wire transfers that were connected to Hunter Biden.”
The Post revealed in October that Hunter Biden introduced his father to a top executive at Burisma.
He joined the company’s board in 2014 and was reportedly paid $50,000 a month. Hunter Biden stepped down in April 2019 when his term expired.