Senators Ron Johnson & Chuck Grassley Seek “Suspicious Activity” Reports On Hunter Biden & Ukraine

More on this, from Reuters:

The Republican chairmen of two U.S. Senate committees have asked the Treasury Department, in a letter, for possible reports of money laundering or fraud on the business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son with a Ukraine energy firm.

The letter, seen by Reuters on Friday, seeks “suspicious activity reports,” or documents that financial institutions file with the department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network when a case of money laundering or fraud is suspected.  

It was unclear if any such reports exist regarding Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son. There letter gave no evidence that Hunter Biden engaged in suspicious activity that would have been covered by such reports. [tmsnrt.rs/2s6ZdoF] 

The agency does not comment on the reports, a spokesman said. Fincen, as the network is known, collects more than 2 million such reports each year, and they are tipsheets that make no findings on whether illegal activity has occurred. 

The request comes as Republicans seek to defend President Donald Trump against a Democrat-led impeachment probe into whether the president improperly pressured Ukraine to investigate the Bidens to improve his chances of re-election. 

Republicans in Congress have tried to turn the impeachment inquiry into an investigation of Hunter Biden - repeating unverified accusations about his work in Ukraine. 

Joe Biden’s campaign criticized the request as a political effort to attack Biden in the wake of damaging impeachment hearings.  

“Trump is now counting on his Republican enablers in the Senate to bail him out,” campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said. “Driven by fear of a mean tweet, they are falling in line, peddling the same disproven lies we’ve heard for months.”  

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent the request in a Nov. 15 letter to Ken Blanco, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. 

The Hill also said:

Two GOP Senate chairmen are asking for the Treasury Department to hand over any documents related to Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy company amid an ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump.

In a letter dated Nov. 15, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked for “suspicious activity reports” involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Reuters reported Friday.

The documents do not include findings about any illegal activity itself but are filed by financial institutions when money laundering or fraud is suspected. It is unknown if any such reports exist involving Hunter Biden, and the GOP letter did not include any evidence that Hunter Biden engaged in any activity that would be covered in such reports, according to Reuters.

Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing involving his work for the Ukrainian company, Burisma Holdings, which President Trump and his Republican allies have targeted. Trump has claimed without evidence that Joe Biden pushed for Ukraine to fire a prosecutor due to his son's business interests, though both have denied such allegations.

The GOP senators said Burisma was paying Hunter Biden as much as $50,000 a month and that their committees were investigating “potentially improper actions by the Obama administration with respect to Burisma Holdings and Ukraine,” according to Reuters.