JUST IN: Lindsey Graham Launches Judiciary Probe Into Bidens and Ukraine

Photo credit: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images.

Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham has opened a probe into the conduct of Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the Ukraine gas company Burisma, nearly one month after claiming his committee had no jurisdiction over the matter.

According to news first reported in the Washington Post, Graham sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday seeking information about the 2016 communications of then-vice president Biden with the former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The formal request by Graham centers on the dismissal of former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who at one point been investigating Burisma. Shokin’s firing was a key element of an anti-corruption campaign publicly called for by Biden, numerous other EU officials, Republicans in Congress, and Ukraine’s own parliament. In the letter, Graham asked the State Dept. to provide him with “call transcripts or summaries” as well as “documents and communication” between Biden and Poroshenko. Graham also suggested in his letter that because Hunter Biden began following Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Twitter in February 2016, the the two “may have initiated conversations regarding Prosecutor General Shokin’s investigation into Burisma.”

Shokin’s firing has become a central part of a debunked conspiracy theory deployed by President Donald Trump’s defenders to push back on the impeachment investigation of the White Hosue and cast corruption allegations at Biden and his son, Hunter.

“Graham’s document request suggests he is seeking to legitimize Trump’s accusations that Biden, then vice president, put pressure on Ukraine to fire its lead prosecutor to protect his son, a claim without evidence that has been disputed by officials familiar with the investigation,” the Post reports. “Graham, one of Trump’s fiercest defenders on Capitol Hill, told the Washington Post in late October that he was under intense pressure to launch an investigation into Biden by Trump and his allies.”

In fact, in late October, Graham also told Fox News host Sean Hannity that his Judiciary Committee lacked jurisdiction to investigate the claim that Biden withheld $1 billion in foreign aid to protect his son and his son’s company from possible prosecution by Shokin.

“No member of Congress is above the law, but congressman can’t call senators and senators can call the presidents because of separation of power,” Graham explained. “In terms of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, yeah, I think somebody definitely needs to look into this and it was about foreign aid so the Foreign Relations Committee would have oversight.”

Graham’s letter to Pompeo notably does not mention foreign aid at all, nor does it explain how its document requests relate to Judiciary Committee business.

However, a spokesperson for Graham did tell the Post that the motivation behind the letter was: “Adam Schiff and the House Intel Committee have made it clear they will not look into the issues about Hunter Biden and Burisma.”

Watch the video above, via Fox News.