GOP Intel chairman warned colleagues their hunt for Biden dirt could help Russia undermine election: report

On Thursday, Politico reported that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) warned Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a meeting on December 5 that their effort to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden over the Ukraine allegations could help Russia interfere with the 2020 presidential election.

This report directly contradicts the claim of Grassley, who told reporters that he hasn't "had any conversation" with Burr about his request for information on Biden.

As it became clear that President Donald Trump had the votes in the Senate to escape conviction for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, some Republicans, including Johnson and Grassley, turned to trying to validate the very conspiracy theory Trump had sought to prove in Ukraine: that the Bidens' ouster of a notoriously corrupt prosecutor in Ukraine was somehow tied to Biden's son's work for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Senate Republicans are broadly divided on whether to move forward with this effort, according to Politico: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has hinted at similar unease with the Biden investigation, and he has said that some of those concerns were relayed to him by Burr — in particular, the source of the information the committee obtains."