When Will Sen. Ron Johnson’s Promised Biden-Burisma Investigation Report Be Released?

Authored by Ben Wilson via SaraACarter.com,

It was March 3 when Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) appeared on Martha MacCallum’s Fox News show to discuss his committee’s investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s involvement with a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings Limited.

Questions surrounding the former Vice President’s middle child have swirled since Biden’s presidential campaign announcement on April 29 of last year.

Hunter Biden was a paid board member of Burisma Holdings Limited. His firm Rosemont Seneca was paid over $80 thousand a month during that time, despite the fact that Hunter Biden had no experience in natural gas, nor could he speak the language. He did, however, have the Vice President as his father.

At the same time, Joe Biden was tasked with heading the Obama administration’s Ukrainian policies. His crowning achievement was forcing the country to fire one of its top prosecutors: Viktor Shokin — who was investigating Burisma Holdings when he was fired.

Johnson told the Fox News audience, “if there’s wrongdoing, the American people need to understand that.” The sentiment is surely genuine but how close his committee — the Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs — is to providing this understanding is unclear. And with the Senate in session for a mere 37 more days before election day, time is running out.

Sen. Johnson did not respond to this reporter’s request for comment.

Eight Republicans and six Democrats compose the committee with Johnson at the helm — this majority grants relative ease in conducting the investigation — with the exception of Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) inconsistency.

Referring to the investigation and Biden’s corruption on March 4, President Trump said, “That will be a major issue in the campaign, I will bring that up all the time…I don’t see how they can answer those questions…that was purely corrupt.”

The most significant step taken in providing Democratic primary voters and Americans as a whole clarity on the Biden corruption was Johnson’s May 20 party-line vote victory to subpoena Blue Star Strategies — despite months of Sen. Romney flirting with a vote against it.

Blue Star Strategies is a public relations firm that consulted for Burisma. The committee’s probe is looking into allegations that the firm attempted to use Hunter Biden’s board position to influence the State Department.

“The question I would ask is, what is everybody worried about?” Johnson told Politico in late May. “If there’s nothing there, we’ll find out there’s nothing there. But if there’s something there, the American people need to know that.”

More recently, the committee has reached out to and demanded testimony from three former Obama administration officials: former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Special Envoy for International Energy Amos Hochstein, former senior State Department officials Victoria Nuland and Catherine Novelli, and former chief of staff to Secretary of State John Kerry, David Wade, according to Politico.

The committee is currently scheduling the above witness interviews and subpoenaing transcribed interviews and documents pertaining to the Bidens and Ukraine.

These actions are steps in the right direction for producing a report — a large component of which will be a timeline of events depicting Hunter’s actions alongside his Vice President father’s actions.

An indication of a release date, however, has yet to be given for when the conclusions will be made public.

There is no question Democrats are opposed to the investigation — when reached out to for comment, committee-member Tom Carper (D-DE) sent a press release calling for Johnson to address other problems the nation is facing instead of “trying to score political points and help a President in an election year.”

On the other side, Republicans have not been fully supportive, either. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) told Johnson that the investigation into BIden may aid Russia in causing chaos and uncertainty in American politics.

The lacking support in both parties may be a reason for a potential delay in the investigation — or perhaps Johnson is taking a breather after receiving immense Republican blowback over his co-proposal to replace Columbus Day with Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday — an idea he later retracted.

Whatever the reason, a clear release date has not been made.

A July 2 tweet from Politico reporter Andrew Desiderio is the most recent indication that there isn’t one.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) tells me his committee’s report on the Burisma probe, expected to be released this summer, is currently being written by staff. “We’ve got the timeline laid out, we’re just trying to fill in the gaps.”

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) July 2, 2020

When asked, neither Johnson’s office nor the committee provided further details on the report’s expected release date.

Delays from COVID-19 lockdowns and precautions are unavoidable, but there is no indication if it will actually arrive before voters cast ballots on Nov. 3.

Voters have a right to know the truth about their candidates before they vote. Just like former FBI Director James Comey’s July 5, 2016 press conference on Hillary Clinton’s email scandal — it was held almost exactly four years ago and right before a consequential election. Voters deserve to know.

For the critics of the investigation, let us not forget President Donald Trump’s impeachment was over the same issue: uncovering the truth about the Biden family cashing in with shady oil companies.

A few headlines from mainstream outlets during the impeachment process include: “Trump Impeachment Is Based on Law, Not Politics,” “Stop Saying That Impeachment Is Political,” and “Impeachment is the law. Saying ‘political process’ only helps Trump’s narrative.”

Since the Trump impeachment was about due process and justice under the law, an investigation into seeming corruption done by a former vice president and possible president is exactly the same.

Another issue is the Senate has just 37 scheduled days of work before election day on Nov 3. They have big questions to face like coronavirus relief packages, too.

Time is running out.

Senator Ron Johnson is leading an important investigation and the voters deserve to know the truth before they vote.

With the limited days of Senate work ahead, this report can easily get sidelined until voters find out the truth too late.

A deadline and release date should be promised and committed to immediately.