Three Senate Democrats submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Justice, hoping to get any records related to President Donald Trumps attempts to probe what former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, did in Ukraine.
Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July to “look into” what happened with the Bidens in Ukraine. Deemed improper by Democrats, who claimed he pressured Zelensky, an impeachment inquiry was launched.
Joe Biden bragged last year that he threatened in 2016 to withhold $1 billion in aid unless then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ousted a top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.
Shokin was probing Ukraine-based energy company Burisma. Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma from 2014 to 2019, earning tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Poroshenko succeeded in ousting Shokin, who later said he refused to close the probe and was asked to resign as a result.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a 2020 presidential contender, filed the FOIA request on Oct. 22 along with Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The request was published by Axios.
The group referred to the complaint filed by an anonymous person who, relying on secondhand information and media reports, accused Trump of “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”
