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WILKES-BARRE — A Luzerne County business owner is mentioned in the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s report on the investigation into suspected Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Democrats on the committee say their majority Republican counterparts should have interviewed Johnny Yenason, who has been connected with the National Rifle Association and a Russian organization, “The Right to Bear Arms,” and who they believe may be the person who linked two prominent Russians with the Trump campaign.
In an interview with the Times Leader on Monday, Yenason admitted knowing the two Russians — Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin, whom he called friends — but denied having any discussions with them regarding the 2016 election.
“I’m just a businessman in Wilkes-Barre who has some friends in Russia,” said Yenason, 62, who owns Pipes R Us, a mechanical contracting company on Darling Street.
They are friends in very high places, however.
Torshin is a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia who is said to be a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Butina, founder of “The Right to Bear Arms,” was formerly Torshin’s assistant, a report by House Democrats indicates.
Torshin has been in the spotlight in recent months, as the FBI is currently investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money through the NRA to help sway the election in Donald Trump’s favor, according to reports from McClatchy, the New York Daily News, ProPublica, NPR and other outlets.
Yenason said he is a born-again Christian who only sought to link his Russian friends with the Trump campaign in the spirit of fellowship, following a prayer meeting in their country two years ago.
“I carry His message to all corners of the world. That’s why I was in Moscow — to attend the Russian National Prayer Breakfast,” Yenason said of a March 2016 trip.
“The real story is that I love Jesus Christ,” Yenason said.
Dems’ report
Republicans on the committee announced last week that they had completed a draft report and saw no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
President Trump replied that he was “very, very happy” with the GOP conclusions.
Democrats on the committee were not so happy, and responded with a 21-page report of their own, the Associated Press reported, detailing threads they believe the committee should pursue and more than 30 witnesses they still want to hear from.
Those witnesses include White House officials, campaign officials and people in the intelligence community — including such big names as former Republican National Committee Chairman and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer — as well as Yenason and Butina.
The report describes Yenason as having “been identified as a key individual connected to the NRA and the Russian organization ‘The Right to Bear Arms,’ started by Maria Butina.”
“Mr. Yenason reportedly knows Alexander Torshin and Ms. Butina and may be the person who connected these individuals with senior officials from the Trump campaign,” the report adds.
“Public reports indicate Ms. Butina, previously an assistant to Alexander Torshin, sought to facilitate meetings with Trump campaign officials and between President Putin and candidate Trump during the election,” the report added.
The Times Leader contacted Jack Langer, director of communications for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to ask about Democrats’ demands for Yenason and others to be interviewed.
Langer did not respond directly to questions, but provided a series of links to previously issued statements, documents and interviews by members of the committee, including from California Rep. Devin Nunes, who chairs the committee, and from fellow Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, a committee member who said the issue had been “thoroughly investigated.” Langer also sent a link to a PDF report describing the investigation’s key metrics.
Yenason said he was surprised that he was not subpoenaed to testify before the committee, but chalked that up to their apparent findings.
“There were people who were subpoenaed who did not know Torshin or Butina,” Yenason said. “I did. Somebody on that committee made a decision to not bring me in — that there was no collusion.”
NRA meeting
Yenason, who graduated from Dallas High School in 1973, is a former president of the Harveys Lake Borough Council who now divides his time between Northeastern Pennsylvania and Alaska.
He is co-founder and past president of “Hunts For Healing,” a Wyoming County-based group that organizes outdoor recreational activities for wounded military veterans. He also is a life member of the NRA.
Interviewed Monday in his Wilkes-Barre office, Yenason denied any culpability in trying to broker a deal between Torshin, Butina and the Trump campaign. He said he never had any discussions with the Russians about anything to do with the 2016 election.
It was, Yenason reiterated, his Christian and veterans advocacy work that prompted him to reach out in May 2016 to Torshin and Butina regarding possible talks with the Trump organization ahead of an NRA conference that candidate Trump was planning to attend that month.
Yenason said that in 2016 he asked Butina to speak at a fundraising effort for the Hershel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation, a nonprofit group is named after a World War II hero who earned a Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
The event was held in Louisville, Ky., on May 18, 2016, a day before the NRA’s annual meeting there, which Trump was slated to attend to receive the gun group’s formal endorsement. Yenason said he suggested the possibility of Butina meeting with Trump, but the Trump camp declined.
Daily Caller account
Yenason also discussed a story published last November in The Daily Caller, a Washington-based conservative news and opinion website.
The Daily Caller story said the 2016 outreach effort made its way from Yenason to a friend of his named Rick Clay and then to Rick Dearborn, a former congressional aide to Jeff Sessions who worked on the Trump campaign.
Dearborn forwarded the outreach to others in the campaign, labelling it a “backdoor overture,” the story added. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, now a White House adviser, declined, writing “be careful,” according to emails released by Kushner’s lawyer and cited by the Daily Caller.
Those communications had brought Kushner to the attention of the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing him of improperly withholding the email exchange.
Yenason flatly denied any such scenario.
“Because of these known friends of mine (Torshin and Butina), there seems to be this belief that I had a corrupt motive to manipulate the election process,” Yenason said.
Yenason also reiterated he had no knowledge of his friends trying to influence the election, saying his only goal was to arrange a meeting of the two groups in a spirit of Christian fellowship, not as a covert mission.
“I own a mechanical contracting business,” Yenason said. “I serve God.”
