‘Nothing Has Changed’: Another Witness Tells GOP She Saw No Corruption By Joe Biden
WASHINGTON ― The head of a Democratic foyer store that represented a Ukrainian vitality agency instructed lawmakers on Monday she was unaware of any involvement by President Joe Biden in his son Hunter’s enterprise offers.
Republicans sought a transcribed interview with Karen Tramontano, CEO of Blue Star Strategies, as a part of their impeachment inquiry in opposition to Biden. Their chief accusation is that the Ukrainian gasoline firm Burisma bribed Biden for a favor again when he was vp through the Obama administration.
“Neither Hunter Biden nor then Vice President Joe Biden had any financial or other involvement in my firm’s work with Burisma,” Tramontano instructed lawmakers, in response to a gap assertion obtained by HuffPost.
“I am also not aware of any financial arrangements or compensation to then Vice President Biden related to his son’s business dealings with Burisma or otherwise,” Tramontano stated.
Tramontano is the most recent in a sequence of witnesses to inform lawmakers they knew of no corruption by the Bidens and hadn’t seen the president become involved in his son’s work. Republicans have struggled to substantiate their bribery allegations, and it’s unclear if they’ll ever muster sufficient assist for an precise impeachment vote.
Monday’s deposition was really Tramontano’s second time testifying about Burisma on Capitol Hill. Senate Republicans first talked to her in 2020 as a part of their investigation into the exact same corruption allegation in opposition to Biden. Republican senators that yr sought to search out out if Biden had pushed for the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor in an effort to shield Burisma as a result of his son served on the corporate’s board.
State Department officers stated ousting the prosecutor was their coverage, not Joe Biden’s, and that the prosecutor had wasted U.S. taxpayer {dollars} by stifling an anti-corruption initiative the U.S. had sponsored. As HuffPost has reported, Tramontano and one other Blue Star govt, Sally Painter, testified in that probe that the State Department had a “negative” view of Burisma that they have been unable to vary. State Department officers stated they thought-about Burisma’s founder corrupt and needed him prosecuted.
The Senate GOP investigators concluded it was unclear whether or not Hunter Biden’s work had any impact on U.S. coverage.
“To the best of my knowledge, nothing has changed since I provided testimony to the Senate and to the DOJ regarding my firm’s work for Burisma,” Tramontano stated Monday. (Separately, the Department of Justice beforehand investigated Blue Star for failing to register as a overseas agent for its Burisma work.)
Even although Republicans are relitigating Burisma allegations that have been debunked each in 2020 and in 2019, when Donald Trump first made them, they’ve uncovered new materials. The lawmakers unearthed an FBI tip sheet by which a confidential supply reported that Burisma’s founder claimed to have paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million every. The informant stated he couldn’t vouch for the declare.
House Republicans final yr sifted by means of hundreds of pages of Hunter Biden’s financial institution information ― in addition to hundreds of his emails, texts and different materials taken from his laptop computer and telephone ― and haven’t but produced any proof of the supposed bribes. (They did discover some truck funds.)
Republicans haven’t indicated they’ll ask for testimony from State Department officers who beforehand testified in opposition to the Biden corruption allegations.
“We’re looking at statements that Tramontano and Painter made,” House judiciary committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) instructed HuffPost earlier this month. “We’re looking at all that old stuff.”
