[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 160 (Wednesday, September 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S5646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 RUSSIA

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, earlier today, my colleagues, Senator 
Schumer and Senator Wyden violated the Senate rules by attempting to 
offer a resolution disparaging oversight work being done by me and 
Senator Johnson. My colleague, Ranking Member Wyden, said that the 
investigation Senator Johnson and I are engaged in is advancing a 
Russian disinformation campaign. To be clear, that investigation is 
focused on potential conflicts of interest and other wrongdoing 
regarding the time Vice President Biden was lead on the Obama 
administration's Ukraine policy. At that same time, his son, Hunter 
Biden, was on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian gas firm called Burisma. 
This investigation is a good-government investigation to better 
understand the effect these potential conflicts had on policy 
execution. This investigation is based on Federal Government records 
from the Obama administration and records from a Democratic lobby shop, 
Blue Star Strategies. If those records are Russian disinformation, then 
that says more about the Obama administration than the purpose of this 
investigation.
  I have also addressed the claim that this investigation is somehow 
connected to Andriy Derkach. I have said publicly on many occasions 
that I have never received information or material fom him. I have 
never solicited information from him. The same is true for my staff. In 
fact, the only two times that I am aware of that my staff have come in 
contact with his information are, No. 1, when the Democrats introduced 
his records into a transcribed interview, and No. 2, when Minority 
Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Warner, and Representative 
Schiff used it in their July 13, 2020, letter.
  They also attempted to link Andriy Telizhenko to Andriy Derkach, 
apparently to cast him as a nefarious foreign agent, but they neglected 
to mention his many connections to the Obama-Biden administration, 
including White House meetings and outings with White House staff. They 
also omitted his work for Blue Star Strategies, which was working on 
behalf of the corrupt Ukrainian firm that hired Hunter Biden while his 
father was the face of U.S. policy toward Ukraine. Democratic 
connections to Mr. Telizhenko are many and well documented. If they are 
so concerned that he is a conduit for disinformation, why did they work 
with him for so long?
  Maybe the Democrats should take a pause and realize that they are the 
only ones pushing Russian disinformation. Let's not forget about the 
Steele Dossier. Thanks to now-declassified information, we know the 
dossier was filled with Russian disinformation. The Democrats bought-
and-paid-for crown jewel ironically was an example of the very 
disinformation and collusion that it falsely accused the Trump campaign 
of. The Democrats pushed it for years. Now that it is a failed 
document, they have tried to run the same baseless smear tactic on this 
investigation. The facts simply aren't on their side. If my colleagues 
on the other side are as concerned about foreign disinformation as they 
claim to be, they would stop relying on it to falsely attack us. Let's 
stop playing these games and get back to business for the American 
people.

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