The office of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that recent disclosures from the office Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) could interfere with the Senate Finance Committees investigation of Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Citing Wydens spokesperson, Yahoo News reported on Feb. 6 that the Treasury Department is “rapidly complying” with a request from Grassleys office for financial documents on Biden. A spokesperson for Grassley criticized the disclosure in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“Its unfortunate that Democrats whom weve kept in the loop on our investigations would recklessly seek to interfere with legitimate government oversight,” Taylor Foy, a Grassley spokesperson, said.
Grassleys initial inquiry to the Treasury dates back to mid-August last year. The senator received a classified briefing about the inquiry in October.
The spokesperson for Wydens office did not respond to a request for comment.
In the Yahoo News report, Wydens spokesperson alleges that the Treasury is giving preference to requests from Republicans over those from the Democrats.
“Applying a blatant double standard, Trump administration agencies like the Treasury Department are rapidly complying with Senate Republican requests—no subpoenas necessary — and producing evidence of questionable origin,” Ashley Schapitl, a Wyden spokesperson, said in a statement. “The administration told House Democrats to go pound sand when their oversight authority was mandatory while voluntarily cooperating with the Senate Republicans sideshow at lightning speed.”
Three Republican-led Senate committees are investigating Hunter Bidens business dealings in Ukraine and China. The Republicans sent a wave of requests in November last year to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the State Department and the National Archives.
The Yahoo report cites a “source familiar with the matter” to claim that the Treasury began to comply with the FinCEN request two months after Grassleys initial inquiry on Nov. 15. Three weeks after Grassley filed his request, Wyden and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) wrote a letter to FinCEN calling on the agency to act free of partisan influence and to handle requests from Congress in the order they are received.
“FinCEN must take steps to ensure that its partnership with Congress is free of partisan influence. FinCENs integrity is vital to its mission, and any appearance of favoritism could compromise FinCENs ability to promote national security,” the senators wrote.
The Treasury did not respond to a request for comment.
The Republicans document requests in November went out when House Democrats were conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The requests are closely related to the matters in the impeachment inquiry. The Democrats probed whether Trump abused his power when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to probe Hunter Biden. The Republicans specifically inquired about the subject the president brought up on the July 25 call with Zelensky.
Trump asked ZRead More – Source
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