Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on Sunday called for a Justice Department investigation of the Biden-Ukraine connection.
The South Carolina Republican said the investigation into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s dealings in Ukraine should be as far-reaching and aggressive as the Russia probe that targeted President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“Joe Biden said everybody’s looked at this and found nothing. Who is everybody? Nobody has looked at the Ukraine and the Bidens,” Mr. Graham said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“There is enough smoke here,” he said. “Was there a relationship between the vice president’s family and the Ukraine business world that was inappropriate? I don’t know. Somebody other than me needs to look at it and I don’t trust the media to get to the bottom of it.”
Mr. Graham said the investigation should extend to Ukraine’s possible involvement in the 2016 election, including leaking information that discredited Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and contributed to his conviction for tax and bank fraud as a result of the Russia probe.
The senator accused the news media of handling Mr. Biden and the corruption allegations with kid gloves.
Most news outlets have focused on Mr. Trump after a report last week that a U.S. intelligence community whistleblower alleged misconduct by Mr. Trump for a July phone call with the country’s president. Mr. Trump allegedly pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, who has served on the board of a Ukraine gas company since 2014 when his father was vice president.
The potential corruption stems from Mr. Biden’s actions in March 2016, when he was vice president and visiting Kiev. He threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if the nation’s leaders did not fire Ukraine’s chief prosecutor.
Mr. Biden said the prosecutor was “turning a blind eye to corruption in his own office and among the political elite.” But the prosecutor also was investigating Ukraine gas company Burisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden had a high-paying seat on the board.
The prosecutor was fired soon after Mr. Biden’s visit.
“Can you imagine if this was the Trump family doing business like this,” said Mr. Graham. “I like Joe Biden. I like him a lot. But you can’t have it both ways here.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.