Rand Paul Says Senate Panel Will Refer Report on Hunter Biden’s Foreign Dealings to DOJ for Criminal Investigation

Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) announced Wednesday that he would refer the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees’ report on its investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings to the Department of Justice for a “a criminal investigation that’s justified.”

“I think riding on Air Force Two and doing business is illegal … and probably a felony,” Paul said in an appearance on Fox News. “I think it’s illegal to take money from a Russian politician’s wife, $3.5 million, was it reported accurately?”

The 87-page interim report released on Wednesday revealed details of Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and his alleged business dealings with politically connected foreign nationals while his father Joe Biden was vice president, including Elena Baturina, the wife of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who was fired in 2010 by then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev over corruption allegations.

The report came after a months-long probe in which members of the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees and their staff reviewed more than 45,000 pages of Obama administration records and interviewed eight witnesses, many of whom are current or former U.S. officials. Records showed “potential criminal activity” relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals, the report said, as well as millions of dollars in “questionable financial transactions” between Biden and his associates and foreign individuals, some of whom had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

“I think the only way to determine the actual legality of this is to have it referred to the Department of Justice,” Paul said. “So I’m gonna send the report over tomorrow. I don’t know if the whole committee will vote for it but … we are asking for a criminal referral.”

He continued: “Here is this evidence, look at it, and then you as the lawyers for the government decide if you have enough to prosecute but I think we should refer this for a criminal investigation.”