The report adds little new to the debate first sparked by President Donald Trump’s defense team at his trial in the Senate earlier this year, when the president was acquitted of charges of abuse of his power by seeking to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden.
The report is based on vague and publicly disclosed assessments – specifically, from senior State Department official George Kent, who said that Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company was “extremely embarrassing” to US officials.
Republican senators have been investigating allegations that a democratic public relations firm, Blue Star Strategies, sought to influence the Obama State Department by leveraging Hunter Biden’s role on the Burisma Board of Directors.
The investigation found that two officials, including Kent, raised conflict of interest concerns for Biden while he was vice president.
Trump allies claim Biden – who led the Obama administration’s anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine – was forced to fire a Ukrainian attorney general who was investigating Burisma while Hunter Biden was sitting at the board. But high-ranking State Department witnesses have repeatedly complained of this claim, asserting that Biden’s dismissal of the attorney general, who was widely seen as corrupt, was official US policy and made it likely that Borisma would in fact face a serious corruption investigation.
