Sens. Johnson and Grassley Demand Secretary of State Antony Blinken Produce All Records Related to Hunter Biden Following False Testimony to Congress

WASHINGTON – On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Committee on the Budget, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, demanding that he produce and preserve all records related to his correspondence with Hunter Biden.  This request follows recent revelations that Blinken lied to Congress when he participated in a December 22, 2020 voluntary transcribed interview with Sens. Johnson’s and Grassley’s staff.

During that interview Blinken provided false testimony when he denied corresponding with Hunter Biden via email when he served as Deputy Secretary of State during the Obama Administration.  Recent reports based on emails contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop have revealed that Blinken did in fact email Hunter Biden on at least two occasions, from his personal email account, contradicting what he told congressional investigators.  Blinken’s blatant lie to Congress calls into question the veracity of his entire December 22, 2020 testimony, including his denial of having any awareness of Hunter Biden’s association with the corrupt Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings.

Additionally, emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop revealed that Blinken’s wife, Evan Ryan, corresponded directly with Hunter Biden (from her personal email address) in an apparent attempt to connect Blinken with representatives of Burisma’s U.S. lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies.

The senators wrote, “Because your testimony is inaccurate, Congress and the public must rely on your records as the source for information about your dealings with Hunter Biden.  As such, you must preserve and provide all records, referring or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings, including but not limited to correspondence sent or received from your personal email accounts and phones, to include those of Ms. Ryan.”

The senators added, “These records will help provide the public a complete picture and understanding of the extent of your apparent deceptions.”

The full text of the letter can be found here and below.

The December 2020 transcript with Blinken can be found here.

 

May 1, 2023

 

The Honorable Antony Blinken

Secretary

Department of State

 

Dear Secretary Blinken:

 

                On December 22, 2020, you provided false testimony to Congress during your voluntary transcribed interview.[1]  As part of our ongoing investigation into the Bidens’ business dealings, you agreed to participate in an interview with our staff to discuss your relationship with Hunter Biden, among other topics.[2]  At the start of that interview, our staff reminded you of the statute that makes it a crime to lie to Congress.[3]  You acknowledged your understanding of that statute and stated that there is no reason you would be unable to provide truthful answers during the interview:[4]

 

Question:            Mr. Blinken, you’re required to answer questions before Congress truthfully.  Do you understand that?

 

Blinken:               I do.

 

Question:            And this also applies to questions posed by congressional staff in an interview.  Specifically, 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 makes it a crime to make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation in the course of a congressional investigation, so this statute applies to your statements here today.  Do you understand that?

 

Blinken:               I do.

 

Question:            Mr. Blinken, is there any reason that you are unable to provide truthful answers in today’s interview?

 

Blinken:               There is not.[5]

 

                Despite this clear warning that it is a crime to make false statements to Congress and congressional staff, you did not provide truthful testimony during the interview when you denied corresponding with Hunter Biden via email when you served as Deputy Secretary of State under the Obama administration:[6]

 

Question:            Did you ever talk with [Hunter Biden] on the phone?

 

                Blinken:               Not that I recall.

 

Question:            Did you have any other means of correspondence with him—emails, texts?

 

Blinken:               No.[7]

 

                Based on evidence now available, your above statement is patently false.  Emails contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop and recent reports have revealed that you did in fact email Hunter Biden on at least two occasions, contradicting what you told congressional investigators.  The May 22, 2015, communication below shows Hunter Biden emailing your personal email address requesting to meet to get your “advice on a couple of things.”  You responded, “Absolutely.”[8]

 

 

Hunter Biden emails Blinken on May 22, 2015 to request meeting[9]

 

The next email below shows you writing to Hunter Biden on July 22, 2015—once again from your personal email address—apparently following your meeting with him at the State Department:[10]

 

Blinken emails Hunter Biden on July 22, 2015, after meeting him at the State Department[11]

 

                Your statement to Congress that you did not email Hunter Biden is clearly not true and calls into question the veracity of your entire December 22, 2020 testimony.  Specifically, you denied having any awareness of Hunter Biden’s association with the corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings:

 

Question:            During your time as Deputy Secretary of State, were you aware of any association that Hunter Biden had with Burisma?

 

Blinken:               I was not.[12]

. . .

 

Question:            [Y]ou were not aware that Hunter Biden served on Burisma’s board?

 

Blinken:               To the best of my recollection, I was not.[13]

 

                Although you denied having any knowledge that Hunter Biden was associated with Burisma, emails reportedly from Hunter Biden’s laptop reveal that your wife, Evan Ryan, who is copied on this letter, corresponded directly with Hunter Biden (from her personal email address) in an apparent attempt to connect you with representatives of Burisma’s U.S. lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies.

 

                In an apparent email exchange on July 14, 2016, Hunter Biden told Ryan that “S” and “K” told him that they called the State Department and left a message.[14]  “S” and “K” appear to be Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, Blue Star Strategies’ Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer, respectively.[15]  Ryan wrote to Biden, “He didn’t get the msg.  He said if we can get him their numbers he can call them late afternoon DC time tmrw – let me know if that works[.]”[16]  Although this email exchange did not reference you by name, State Department documents obtained during our investigation make it clear that you were concurrently trying to connect with representatives from Blue Star Strategies.

 

Blinken requests Blue Star Strategies’ contact information in July 15, 2016 email chain[17]

 

Another reported email from Hunter Biden’s laptop shows that on July 15, 2016, an individual from Hunter Biden’s firm instructed him and his business associate, Eric Schwerin, to “please call Evan Ryan . . . Hunter – she tried your cell earlier and it went straight to vm[.]”[18]  You told congressional investigators that you did not meet with Tramontano or Painter during this time period.[19]  When asked if either of them informed you that they were representing Burisma, you said, “To the best of my recollection, no.”[20]

 

It seems highly unlikely that you had no idea of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma while your wife was apparently coordinating with Hunter Biden to potentially connect you with Burisma’s U.S. representatives.

 

The public recently learned through congressional testimony from former CIA official Michael Morell, that you allegedly were the catalyst of an October 2020 information operation aimed to deceive Americans about the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop.[21]  It is now evident that your apparent willingness to deceive the public continued through December 2020 when you failed to tell the whole truth to congressional investigators about your contacts with Hunter Biden. 

 

Because your testimony is inaccurate, Congress and the public must rely on your records as the source for information about your dealings with Hunter Biden.  As such, you must preserve and provide all records, referring or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings, including but not limited to correspondence sent or received from your personal email accounts and phones, to include those of Ms. Ryan.[22]  These records will help provide the public a complete picture and understanding of the extent of your apparent deceptions.  We request you and Ms. Ryan produce these records no later than May 15, 2023. 

 

                                                                               

 

 

 

 

Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                           Charles E. Grassley

Ranking Member                                                                                                          Ranking Member

Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations                                                     Committee on the Budget

 

 

cc:          The Honorable Richard Blumenthal

                Chairman

                Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

 

                The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse

                Chairman

                Committee on the Budget

 

                The Honorable Jim Jordan

                Chairman

                Committee on the Judiciary

 

                The Honorable James Comer

                Chairman

                Committee on Oversight and Accountability

 

                Ms. Evan Ryan

                c/o Office of the White House Counsel

The White House

 

###


[1] Transcript of Interview, S. Comm. on Fin. and S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff. Interview of Antony Blinken (Dec. 22, 2020), available at https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/2020-12-22-Blinken%20Interview%20with%20Exhibits%20-%20updated%20-%20reduced.pdf [Hereinafter Antony Blinken Testimony].

[2] At the time of the December 2020 interview, Senator Johnson was Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Senator Grassley was Chairman of the Committee on Finance.

[3] Antony Blinken Testimony at 14.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id. at 30.

[7] Id. at 30.  Blinken added, “The only other times I would have seen Hunter Biden, I think were two.  One, I spent a lot of time with his father, the President-elect, sometimes at their—at his home in Delaware or when he was Vice President at the Naval Observatory or in his office at the White House, and on probably a handful of occasions, I would see Hunter Biden or when he was still alive, Beau Biden, or actually Biden and his children either at his home in Delaware, the Naval Observatory, or sometimes in his office at the Office of the Vice President.  So those were the other occasions in which I would have seen Hunter, and of course, I saw him at the funeral of his brother.”  Id. at 30-31.

[8] Jessica Chasmar and Cameron Cawthorne, Blinken and wife emailed frequently with Hunter Biden, raising questions about role in laptop cover story, Fox News, Apr. 25, 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blinken-wife-emailed-frequently-hunter-biden-raising-questions-role-laptop-cover-story.  Based on State Department documents obtained during Senator Johnson’s and Grassley’s investigation, Hunter Biden was scheduled to meet with Blinken on May 27, 2015.  See Antony Blinken testimony at 33, 110-111.  Blinken told congressional investigators that this meeting did not occur due to Beau Biden’s worsening health.  Id. at 33.  When asked what Hunter Biden wanted to discuss at the May 2015 meeting, Blinken responded that he does not know.  Id. at 36.

[9] Jessica Chasmar and Cameron Cawthorne, Blinken and wife emailed frequently with Hunter Biden, raising questions about role in laptop cover story, Fox News, Apr. 25, 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blinken-wife-emailed-frequently-hunter-biden-raising-questions-role-laptop-cover-story.  The redactions of the email addresses were included in the article.

[10] Id.  During the December 2020 interview, Blinken told congressional investigators that the only meeting that he ever had with Hunter Biden during his service at the State Department occurred on July 22, 2015.  See Antony Blinken Testimony at 30, 34, 36.  Blinken stated that during this lunch meeting he and Hunter Biden spoke about Beau Biden, who had passed away two months prior.  Id. at 35-36.  This was the only topic of discussion Blinken could recall from this meeting.  Id. at 36. 

[11] Jessica Chasmar and Cameron Cawthorne, Blinken and wife emailed frequently with Hunter Biden, raising questions about role in laptop cover story, Fox News, Apr. 25, 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blinken-wife-emailed-frequently-hunter-biden-raising-questions-role-laptop-cover-story.  The redactions of the email addresses were included in the article.

[12] Antony Blinken Testimony at 28.

[13] Id. at 29-30.

[14] Email from Hunter Biden to Evan Ryan, Jul. 14, 2016, https://bidenlaptopemails.com/biden-emails/email.php?id=20160714-220016_102603.

[15] Our Team, Blue Star Strategies, https://www.bluestarstrategies.com/about/our-team.

[16] Email from Evan Ryan to Hunter Biden, Jul. 14, 2016, https://bidenlaptopemails.com/biden-emails/email.php?id=20160714-220016_102603.

[17] Antony Blinken Testimony at 126-127.  The State Department applied the redactions to the email addresses.

[18] Email from Joan Mayer to Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin, Jul. 15, 2016, https://bidenlaptopemails.com/biden-emails/email.php?id=20160715-144649_111821.

[19] Antony Blinken Testimony at 94.

[20] Id.

[21] Letter from Jim Jordan, Chairman, H. Comm. on the Judiciary, and Michael Turner, Chairman, H. Permanent Select Comm. on Intelligence, to Antony Blinken, Apr. 20, 2023, https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-04-20-jdj-mt-to-blinken-re-public-statement-on-hunter-biden-emails_0.pdf; Natasha Bertrand, Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say, Politico, Oct. 19, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276. According to recent testimony from Michael Morell, the former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Blinken was the catalyst of the October 19, 2020 letter signed by 51 former Intelligence Agency officials which was designed to convince the American public that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Id.  At the time of the letter’s release, Blinken was a senior advisor to the Biden campaign. Kristen Hinman, These Are the Most Influential Operatives on the Biden Campaign, Washingtonian, Oct. 26, 2020, https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/10/26/these-are-the-most-influential-operatives-on-the-biden-campaign/.

[22] “Records” include any written, recorded, or graphic material of any kind, including letters, memoranda, reports,

notes, electronic data (emails, email attachments, and any other electronically-created or stored information),

calendar entries, inter-office communications, meeting minutes, phone/voice mail or recordings/records of verbal

communications, and drafts (whether or not they resulted in final documents).