GOP senators suggest Blinken lied about Burisma — was ‘trying to connect’ with firm’s US lobbyists

WASHINGTON — Republican Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley believe Secretary of State Antony Blinken may have lied to Congress about his knowledge of first son Hunter Biden’s job at Ukrainian gas firm Burisma — in addition to his alleged untruth about never emailing with Hunter.

The senators wrote that emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop as well as additional records assembled by legislative investigators cast doubt on Blinken’s professed ignorance of Hunter’s role on Burisma’s board, where he earned up to $1 million per year, and in fact show Blinken was “trying to connect” with Burisma’s US lobbyists.

“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,” Johnson (R-Wis.) and Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to Blinken Tuesday morning.

“Specifically, you denied having any awareness of Hunter Biden’s association with the corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.”

Lying to Congress is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison — and the intensifying focus on Blinken comes after he was exposed April 20 as the man who inspired 51 former spy-agency leaders to issue a statement casting doubt on the authenticity of documents from Hunter Biden’s laptop implicating then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in his family’s Chinese and Ukrainian business relationships.

Both Blinken and his wife Evan Ryan, President Biden’s current cabinet secretary and an assistant secretary of state from 2013 to 2017, appeared to be aware of Hunter’s Burisma position, the letter says, demanding that the couple hand over by May 15 “all records, referring or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings.”

Blinken, who was deputy national security adviser when Hunter joined Burisma’s board in 2014 and then deputy secretary of state for the final two years of the Obama-Biden administration, said in a Dec. 22, 2020, Senate deposition he had no idea that the then-vice president’s son scored the Burisma post.

“During your time as deputy secretary of state, were you aware of any association that Hunter Biden had with Burisma?” a Senate questioner asked Blinken.

“I was not,” Blinken said — even though Hunter’s Burisma position was reported by news outlets in May 2014, stoking controversy.

“You were not aware that Hunter Biden served on Burisma’s board?” the investigator pressed.

“To the best of my recollection, I was not,” said Blinken, who one month after the grilling became President Biden’s secretary of state.

Grassley and Johnson, who led an initial investigation of the first family’s foreign business ventures while they led the Senate homeland security and finance committees in 2020, cited emails from Hunter’s laptop that appear to contradict the top diplomat, and referred to further non-public documentation.

“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… corresponded directly with Hunter Biden (from her personal email address) in an apparent attempt to connect you with representatives of Burisma’s US lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies,” the two senators wrote.

“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. ‘S’ and ‘K’ appear to be Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, Blue Star Strategies’ Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer, respectively. 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[.]’

“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.”

Grassley and Johnson went on: “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[.]’ You told congressional investigators that you did not meet with Tramontano or Painter during  this time period. When asked if either of them informed you that they were representing Burisma, you said, ‘To the best of my recollection, no.’

“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 US representatives.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment, but has thus far refused to comment either on Blinken’s role in inspiring the 51-spies letter or on Johnson’s allegation, first made Sunday, that Blinken perjured himself by denying emailing with Hunter Biden.

Blinken told Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall on Monday, however, that he “didn’t ask” former CIA acting director Michael Morell to write the letter aimed at discrediting The Post’s laptop reports by claiming they had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

The former spymasters’ letter, issued just before the 2020 election, was cited by Joe Biden at the final presidential debate to falsely smear The Post’s reporting as “garbage” and a “Russian plant.”

The Post’s reporting showed that Joe Biden met with a Burisma executive on April 16, 2015, and that Joe Biden was involved in and penciled-in for a 10% cut in 2017 from a venture with CEFC China Energy. The reporting was later broadly corroborated.

Senate Republicans currently are in the minority and lack the power to compel Blinken and Ryan to produce documents. However, Republican-led House committees, such as the Oversight Committee, could take up the cause.

Grassley and Johnson wrote that Blinken had exhibited a pattern of dishonesty.

“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. 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,” 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.”

The Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, makes charging decisions in cases of lying to Congress. Garland allegedly gave false testimony of his own to Congress about the independence of the criminal tax fraud probe of Hunter Biden, according to an IRS whistleblower who contacted Congress on April 19 to allege a coverup.