GOP senators seek Justice Department details on Biden, Democrats

Two senior Republicans are asking the Justice Department for information about Joe Biden’s interactions with Ukrainian officials and whether Ukraine worked with Democrats to get damaging information on President Donald Trump’s election campaign.

Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley and Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson made the request as Trump and his allies try to turn the tables on an investigation by House Democrats into allegations that the president pressured Ukraine’s leader to investigate Biden, one of his chief political rivals.

As Democrats begin an official impeachment inquiry into Trump, the president has raised discredited claims about Biden’s involvement in stopping a probe into his son’s work in Ukraine and allegations that the Democratic Party in 2016 worked with Ukrainian officials to discover ties between Trump, his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is now in prison, and Russian figures.

“Ukrainian efforts, abetted by a U.S. political party, to interfere in the 2016 election should not be ignored. Such allegations of corruption deserve due scrutiny, and the American people have a right to know when foreign forces attempt to undermine our democratic processes,” the senators wrote in a letter to Attorney General William Barr.