In the runup to Wednesday’s vote, Democrats were calling for intelligence briefings before the committee moves forward with a subpoena, citing concerns that the panel’s investigation could aid Russian disinformation efforts. They raised alarms in particular about Telizhenko, who has leveled unsubstantiated claims about coordination between the Ukrainian government and the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

Johnson said Republican and Democratic members of the panel suggested that the subpoena instead be targeted at Blue Star Strategies, the firm for which Telizhenko consulted. Because the target of the subpoena was altered, committee rules require Johnson to formally notify the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan. If Peters objects, the full committee would be required to vote on the subpoena.

“We still plan to issue a subpoena for the Blue Star documents — we will be subpoenaing Blue Star directly,” a committee source said, adding that the subpoena will seek the same documents but it will be addressed to a different entity.

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The subpoena to Telizhenko was expected to be approved on party lines at Wednesday afternoon’s vote. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced last week that he would support the subpoena, after raising several concerns in the preceding days that the committee’s investigation appeared politically motivated given Joe Biden’s resurgence in the Democratic presidential primary.

Peters had called for intelligence briefings about Telizhenko ahead of the subpoena vote, but Johnson said those requests amounted to an effort to “stall” the committee’s investigation.

Several Republicans have privately raised national security concerns about the investigation, including Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Democrats have knocked the probe as a crusade to tar Biden as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, but Johnson has insisted that his effort to look into conflict-of-interest claims against the Bidens has nothing to do with the election.

Johnson said on Wednesday that he ultimately wanted to be “abundantly cautious” due to unspecified “discrepancies” among information that was presented in various classified briefings to senators and staffers. He declined to elaborate.

In a statement, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign said it was “alarming and deeply troubling” that Johnson is continuing to use the resources of the Homeland Security Committee to investigate Hunter Biden.

Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.

