Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Page S5646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RUSSIA
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, earlier today, my colleagues, Senator
Schumer and Senator Wyden violated the Senate rules by attempting to
offer a resolution disparaging oversight work being done by me and
Senator Johnson. My colleague, Ranking Member Wyden, said that the
investigation Senator Johnson and I are engaged in is advancing a
Russian disinformation campaign. To be clear, that investigation is
focused on potential conflicts of interest and other wrongdoing
regarding the time Vice President Biden was lead on the Obama
administration's Ukraine policy. At that same time, his son, Hunter
Biden, was on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian gas firm called Burisma.
This investigation is a good-government investigation to better
understand the effect these potential conflicts had on policy
execution. This investigation is based on Federal Government records
from the Obama administration and records from a Democratic lobby shop,
Blue Star Strategies. If those records are Russian disinformation, then
that says more about the Obama administration than the purpose of this
investigation.
I have also addressed the claim that this investigation is somehow
connected to Andriy Derkach. I have said publicly on many occasions
that I have never received information or material fom him. I have
never solicited information from him. The same is true for my staff. In
fact, the only two times that I am aware of that my staff have come in
contact with his information are, No. 1, when the Democrats introduced
his records into a transcribed interview, and No. 2, when Minority
Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Warner, and Representative
Schiff used it in their July 13, 2020, letter.
They also attempted to link Andriy Telizhenko to Andriy Derkach,
apparently to cast him as a nefarious foreign agent, but they neglected
to mention his many connections to the Obama-Biden administration,
including White House meetings and outings with White House staff. They
also omitted his work for Blue Star Strategies, which was working on
behalf of the corrupt Ukrainian firm that hired Hunter Biden while his
father was the face of U.S. policy toward Ukraine. Democratic
connections to Mr. Telizhenko are many and well documented. If they are
so concerned that he is a conduit for disinformation, why did they work
with him for so long?
Maybe the Democrats should take a pause and realize that they are the
only ones pushing Russian disinformation. Let's not forget about the
Steele Dossier. Thanks to now-declassified information, we know the
dossier was filled with Russian disinformation. The Democrats bought-
and-paid-for crown jewel ironically was an example of the very
disinformation and collusion that it falsely accused the Trump campaign
of. The Democrats pushed it for years. Now that it is a failed
document, they have tried to run the same baseless smear tactic on this
investigation. The facts simply aren't on their side. If my colleagues
on the other side are as concerned about foreign disinformation as they
claim to be, they would stop relying on it to falsely attack us. Let's
stop playing these games and get back to business for the American
people.
____________________
