Thread by @nycsouthpaw

News — The Treasury Dept. sent information on Hunter Biden to the expanding GOP inquiry led by Senators Grassley, Johnson and Graham, per the ranking member on Grassley’s Finance Committee yhoo.it/39cYe6z from me

For months, the Senators have been sending letters to cabinet departments and agencies seeking to investigate Hunter Biden and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 campaign, the same subjects Trump and Giuliani tried to coerce Ukraine to investigate.

On November 15, Grassley and Johnson wrote to the director of the Treasury's money laundering watchdog FinCEN requesting suspicious activity reports on Biden, his associates, and their businesses and clients. Per a source familiar, Treasury started responding within two months.

Through his spokesperson, Sen. Wyden, the ranking member on the Finance Committee, criticized the administration for exercising a double standard in its responses to the GOP Senate's investigation and the impeachment inquiry. Full statement from @AshleySchapitl:

@AshleySchapitl The records Grassley and Johnson sought from FinCEN, known as SARs, are required to be filed by financial institutions when they know or reasonably suspect their customers' activities violate the criminal law, violate the bank secrecy act, or are connected to money laundering.

SARs are some of the most sensitive and closely-held records in federal law enforcement. It's generally against the law for banks or federal employees to reveal a SAR or even the fact that a SAR has been filed, and DOJ has recently begun to prosecute violations.

A few weeks ago, DOJ secured a guilty plea from Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards--a former FinCEN employee--for sharing SARs related to Paul Manafort and others with a reporter during the Mueller investigation. It was the first case to be solely based on illicitly revealing SARs.

A fantastic @LoopEmma story on this Senate investigation.

“It's strange that any senator would complain about receiving responses to oversight requests in a timely manner,” a Grassley spokesperson told her. buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

NYT’s story on the same subject doesn’t credit ours nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/…

They’ve kindly updated it. Thank you, @arappeport.

We’ve updated our story to include Senate Republicans’ responses Thursday.

https://twitter.com/weinbergersa/status/1225588826300653575?s=21

Sen. Kennedy says the Senate has “a legal and moral obligation” to investigate Hunter Biden, a private citizen, including obtaining his and his associates’ SARs from Treasury, because it’s important hold people accountable and fire them. via @Acyn

Sen. Kennedy voted against calling witnesses and subpoenaing documents in the impeachment trial to determine whether President Donald Trump, a public servant, should be fired.

Sen. Kennedy also voted against motions to subpoena documents and call witnesses at the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, a future associate justice of the Supreme Court.