U.S. Senate to grill witnesses in Biden-Ukraine scandal

A U.S. Senate committee has voted to give its chairman, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., permission to subpoena Blue Star Strategies in its investigation of a Ukrainian company's hiring of Hunter Biden while his father was President Obama's point man for Ukraine policy.

Hunter Biden was paid a total of more than $3 million to serve on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings despite having had no experience in the industry.

Joe Biden, meanwhile, boasted of pressuring Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor investigating Burisma by threatening to withhold a billion dollars in American loan guarantees.

Politico reported the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to authorize the subpoena of Blue Star, a Democratic public relations company that did consulting work for Burisma.

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Democrats on the committee claimed the investigation would boost Trump's political fortunes, the report said.

The investigation focuses on claims Blue Star sought to leverage Hunter Biden's position on the board to influence matters at the Obama administration State Department.

Johnson discounted concerns.

"What is everybody worried about? If there’s nothing there, we’ll find out there’s nothing there. But if there’s something there, the American people need to know that," he said.

A spokesman for the senator said Blue Star has in recent months "even refused to let our staff speak to their attorney."

The vote in the committee was along party lines. The Daily Caller reported said Burisma had hired Blue Start to respond to claims of corruption.

President Trump brought up the apparent conflict of interest in the phone call with the Ukrainian president at the center of the whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment and eventual acquittal in the Senate.