Republican senators find no evidence of wrongdoing regarding Biden and Ukraine policy

Republican senators' investigation into Joe Biden and Ukraine has come up empty.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee had been conducting an investigation into the former vice president's dealings with Ukraine, and committee chair Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) admittedly hoped to prove Biden's "unfitness for office." But an interim report of their ongoing investigation released Wednesday doesn't do that.

Republicans have long sought to find some kind of collusion between Biden's vice presidency and his son Hunter Biden's work at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, seeing as Biden led Ukraine policy during the Obama administration. Attempts to dig up dirt about Biden and Ukraine sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and after that concluded with no conviction, Republicans have been trying to turn the tables on Biden.

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But as Johnson told The New York Times in the days before the report's release, the investigation found no "massive smoking guns" regarding Biden. The report relies largely on a quote from career diplomat George Kent, who said Hunter Biden's work with Burisma made things "awkward" for State Department officials focused on Ukraine. But it doesn't relay any improper influence or wrongdoing by Biden, nor does it confirm Republicans' accusations that Biden tried to oust Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin to protect his son from an investigation.