Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked for records of White House meetings in 2016
between Obama administration officials, Ukrainian government
representatives, and Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials.
Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and
Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asked Archivist
David Ferraro to produce records so as to “better understand the nature
of these meetings, including who attended and what was discussed,” in a
letter sent on Thursday (pdf).
“According
to recent reports, in January 2016 Ukrainian governmental officials and
corruption investigators met with members of former President Obama’s
National Security Council (NSC), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
Department of State and Department of Justice (DOJ). Obama
Administration officials also met with Alexandra Chalupa, a contractor
for the DNC, who reportedly worked with Ukrainian officials to undermine
the Trump campaign,” Grassley said in a news release.
Their letter, citing those reports, elaborated that in 2016, “some of Ukraine’s
top corruption prosecutors and investigators [met] face to face with
members of former President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC),
FBI, State Department and Department of Justice (DOJ).”
Some of
the meetings reportedly included Alexandra Chalupa, a contractor for the
DNC. They said Chalupa, who is Ukrainian-American, has been accused of
working with Ukrainian officials to undermine Trump’s 2016 campaign.
During
the January 2016 meeting, the senators said that officials also brought
up investigations into Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas firm that had
hired Hunter Biden, who served as a board member.
The letter places focus on Andrii Telizhenko, a former official at
the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington who has claimed to have witnessed
alleged attempts between the DNC and the Ukrainian government.
“U.S.
officials told the Ukrainians they would prefer that Kyiv drop the
Burisma probe and allow the FBI to take it over,” he was quoted by the
two senators as saying in their letter.
The senators are now
requesting records about the five White House meetings listed in the
letter and all records related to meetings between and among White House
officials, Andrii Telizhenko, Nazar Kholodnytskyy, Oksana Shulyar, and
Valeriy Chaly.
“Please provide these documents as soon as possible
but no later than 5:00 p.m. on December 5, 2019,” the senators
requested in the letter.
Hunter and Joe Biden are one of the key
figures mentioned in the House Democrat-led impeachment inquiry into
President Donald Trump. Democrats have alleged that Trump pressured
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating the Bidens in
exchange for military aid. Several witnesses testified that they
presumed that the Trump administration was engaged in a quid pro quo
agreement with Ukraine, which the White House, Ukrainian officials, and
Trump has denied.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka,
meanwhile, announced Wednesday that Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky is
suspected in the “theft of government funds on an especially large
scale,” but did not provide more details, Reuters reported. Zlochevsky’s whereabouts are unknown.
