Three Republican senators are calling for interviews from two people involved in an alleged effort by the Ukrainian embassy to undermine President Trump’s campaign in 2016.
The request for the interviews comes after Sen. Chuck Grassley started a probe in 2017 into allegations that a consultant from the Democratic National Committee sought damaging information on then-candidate Donald Trump from Ukrainian officials.
According to a press release Friday, the senators cited past reports that suggested Ukrainian officials were working to benefit Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“Contrary to the popular narrative in the ’main stream media’ that Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election has been debunked, or ’no evidence exists,’ there are many unanswered questions that have festered for years. One of the reasons our nation remains so divided is the disconnect between those who are curious about any and all possible foreign interference and those who are not,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, who is investigating the matter.
In addition to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley, Sen. Lindsey Graham has also demanded the transcribed interviews.
The lawmakers want their staff to speak with Alexandra Chalupa, a DNC consultant who lobbied for damaging information on Mr. Trump and his campaign officials. They would also like to speak with Andrii Telizhenko, who worked with the Ukrainian embassy.
The requests come just days after the senators asked the chief executive officer at Blue Star Strategies, a consulting firm linked to a Ukrainian energy company, for information regarding its work for Burisma after recent reports suggest the consulting firm used Hunter Biden’s position on the board of the Ukrainian company to obtain meetings with Obama administration officials.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Republicans are following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disinformation team with the Ukraine “conspiracy theories.”
“Every day that Senate Republicans parrot Putin’s talking points further undermines our democracy—and our national security—and raises questions about why the Republican majority in the Senate continues to block legislation to better secure our elections from Putin’s assault and refuse to pass tough mandatory sanctions ahead of 2020,” he said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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