U.S. revokes Ukrainian witness's visa, blocking his testimony in Senate Biden probe

In the lead-up to the 2020 Senate inquiry into possible Biden family corruption, former Ukrainian embassy attaché Andrii Telizhenko was scheduled to appear before Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley. Telizhenko, who had worked for the Democratic-aligned consulting firm Blue Star Strategies, claimed he could provide firsthand evidence about Hunter Biden’s board membership at Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

On September 8, 2020, the U.S. embassy in Kyiv revoked his visa after the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force flagged him as a potential source of Russian disinformation. The State Department subsequently sanctioned him, accusing him of aiding foreign interference, even though FBI and CIA memos noted his long-standing opposition to Russia and rejected recruitment attempts. The visa cancellation stopped the senators from hearing his testimony, and later releases showed the FBI had already briefed lawmakers on the alleged disinformation risk, effectively steering the investigation away from his evidence.