Senate Homeland Security leader Johnson wants D.C. law firm linked to Burisma to verify new emails

The GOP-led Senate Homeland Security Committee is taking another path in its effort to confirm the validity of at least one recently discovered email related to the panel’s investigation of Hunter Biden and his business deals with Ukraine energy conglomerate Burisma Holdings – asking a D.C. law firm to help verify the correspondence.

Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson made the request Saturday in a letter to attorney Peter Kadzik, at the firm Venable LLP, which has asked Blue Star Strategies for assistance in helping with Burisma, one of Venable's clients.

Johnson states in the letter that Kadzik told the Senate committee on Oct. 15 that Blue Star had complied with a May 22 subpoena to “produce all records from January 1, 2013 to the present related to work for or on behalf of Burisma Holdings or individuals associated with Burisma Holdings.” 

However, Blue Star’s name appears on at least one email among the recently discovered ones that was not included in those in response to the subpoena, Johnson also writes.

The email was among several in last week’s New York Post story that appeared to show that Hunter Biden in 2015 arranged a meeting between his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and a top executive as Burisma, which had been under investigation by the Ukraine government. Biden, as vice president, had been influential in getting the government prosecutor dismissed. 

The trove of emails were purportedly found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.

“On October 15, 2020, recent reporting included at least one email that appeared to be a correspondence between Blue Star  Strategies, Mr. Biden, and others that would be responsive to the Committee’s subpoena that the firm has not produced to the committee,” Johnson writes in the letter. 

The Homeland Security has investigate Hunter Biden’s overseas dealings for several years. Johnson this weekend also asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to verify the emails.

Johnson concludes the letter by saying that as part of the committee’s efforts to validate information allegedly contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop “please confirm whether an individual  from Blue Star Strategies sent at least one email in question to Hunter Biden and others on December 2, 2015.

The Wisconsin Republican also asks that the email and “other responsive emails” be sent to the committee with an explanation about why they were not included previously.

Johnson is requesting a response by Thursday.