Mitt Romney might thwart a Senate investigation of Hunter Biden

(Image credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

After former Vice President Joe Biden revived his Democratic presidential candidacy with a win in South Carolina, Senate Republicans suddenly started making noise about an investigation into Biden's son Hunter and his work for Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Before Biden won 10 of 14 states on Super Tuesday, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he might try to subpoena documents on Hunter Biden's Burisma work, and he's now set a committee vote on the motion for next Wednesday.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) could derail the subpoena. And he suggested Thursday that he's seriously considering it. "I would prefer that investigations are done by an independent, nonpolitical body," he told The Washington Post. "There's no question the appearance is not good." Romney added that "looking into Burisma and Hunter Biden appears political," and "I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations."

The Homeland Security Committee has eight Republicans and six Democrats, and if Romney sides with the Democrats and causes a 7-7 split, the subpoena motion fails.

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Joe Biden was the Obama administration's point person on Ukraine corruption when Burisma hired Hunter Biden, and Republicans are search for evidence that there was something corrupt in this arrangement, not just unseemly — like, say, overcharging the Secret Service to stay at your president-father's property, or profiting off a rule you pushed while working at your father-in-law's White House.

Romney is already a pariah in some Republican circles because he voted to convict Trump on one impeachment count — abuse of power for trying to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden — and in his speech explaining that vote, Romney made clear he thinks Hunter Biden "taking excessive advantage of his father's name is unsavory but also not a crime," adding: "There is no question in my mind that were their names not Biden, the president would never have done what he did." Trump has made clear he plans to make Burisma a campaign issue.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.