Senate committee postpones vote to subpoena records in Biden investigation

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee postponed a vote on a subpoena of records about the work former Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s son, Hunter, did for a Ukranian energy firm.

The committee was expected to proceed Wednesday with a vote to subpoena records regarding Andrii Telizhenko’s work for Blue Star Strategies, a consultancy linked to the Ukranian energy firm Burisma. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, committee chairman, abruptly changed the committee’s plans and sent a message to fellow committee members explaining his decision to delay a vote to subpoena the records.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and to allow time for you to receive additional briefings, I will postpone a vote to subpoena records and an appearance from former Blue Star Strategies consultant Andrii Telizhenko about his work for the lobbying firm,” Mr. Johnson said in a message to his fellow committee members. “While we work through those questions, at the suggestion of both Republican and Democrat Committee members, we will instead go straight to the source and compel the same records and an appearance directly from Blue Star Strategies.”

The decision to change plans and subpoena Blue Star was done to pursue a bipartisan path forward, according to a committee source.

“We still plan to issue a subpoena for the Blue Star documents — we will be subpoenaing Blue Star directly,” a committee source said.

At a committee meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson said he did not want to discuss the postponed subpoena at any length in a public forum beyond the statement sent to his colleagues.

“In this setting, it’s probably best the less said the better,” Mr. Johnson said at a committee meeting about the potential subpoena on Wednesday. “I do want to say I appreciate the bipartisan discussion on this thing, we will be moving forward, as the statement suggests, but again I think in this setting I’d rather not get into it.”