A leading Senate Republican disclosed on Monday that an FBI informant reported that the Ukrainian oligarch allegedly involved in a "criminal bribery conspiracy" with Joe and Hunter Biden also claimed to have 17 recordings of his conversations with the president and his son.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) disclosed on the Senate floor that a largely unredacted version of the bureau's FD-1023 confidential human source form stated that "the foreign national who is alleged to have bribed Joe and Hunter Biden possesses audio recordings of 17 of his conversations with them."
Biden's Bribery Scheme Audio Recordings Allegedly Exist
Mykola Zlochevsky, the Ukrainian owner of Burisma, was the "foreign national" implicated in the alleged "criminal bribery scheme" detailed in the FBI form. Zlochevsky referred to Joe Biden as "the big guy" in a conversation several years before the June 2020 date of the bureau document, according to sources familiar with the FBI record who described its contents.
According to the FD-1023, "the foreign national possesses fifteen audio recordings of phone calls between himself and Hunter Biden" and "two audio recordings of phone calls between himself and Vice President Joe Biden."
Per The Washington Examiner, the senator also stated that the FBI file "indicates that former Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in the hiring of Hunter Biden by Burisma."
The Delaware US Attorney's Office is in charge of the ongoing federal criminal investigation of Hunter Biden. A Trump appointee, US Attorney David Weiss, allegedly has the authority to determine whether to indict the president's son. Joseph Biden asked all Senate-confirmed US attorneys appointed by Trump to resign in February 2021, with the rare exception of Weiss.
This year, Grassley learned of the informant file from a whistleblower and informed the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer (R-Kentucky), who then issued a subpoena to the FBI. The informant has been a paid FBI source for years.
Grassley stated that the FBI's alleged lack of interest in the Biden bribery allegations starkly contrasts its treatment of former President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday will become the first former president to be charged with mishandling classified information after leaving office.
According to the facts known to Congress and the general public, it is evident that the Justice Department and FBI have not had the same laser-like focus on the Biden family. Jack Smith, the special counsel in the classified documents case, indicted Trump, as per NY Post.
Robert Hur, a different special counsel, is investigating Biden's management of classified documents from his Senate years and vice presidency, discovered in his Delaware residence and DC office in late 2022 and early 2023.
The initial allegation of extortion against Biden was made in 2017. However, the FBI created the informant file read by House legislators last week in June 2020, after the tip received renewed focus.
According to multiple Republicans, the document alleges that the Bidens were paid $10 million in 2015 and 2016 in exchange for Joe Biden's advocacy for the ouster of Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin.
Joe Biden has boasted publicly that he used $1 billion in US loan guarantees as leverage to get Shokin dismissed. However, Democrats produced evidence during Trump's impeachment trial in 2020 that other US allies wanted Shokin fired for their corruption.
The document also references Burisma's attempts to form a partnership with an American company, according to lawmakers. It is uncertain which company is mentioned, but in 2016 the Ukrainian firm acquired shares of a Canadian company to enter a joint venture with the American company Cub Energy.
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Hunter Biden Tax Affairs
From 2014 to 2019, Hunter Biden earned up to $1 million per year to serve on the board of Burisma, despite having yet to experience in the energy industry.
In April 2015, then-Vice President Joseph Biden met with a Burisma executive at a dinner in Washington, DC, which was mentioned in The Post's first explosive expose on Hunter's abandoned laptop. Other Joe Biden actions in Ukraine have garnered attention, including his alleged drive for US support for Ukraine's natural gas industry during a secret trip to Kyiv in April 2014, just days after Hunter joined Burisma.
Obama administration visitor records indicate he met with Devon Archer, who was also in the process of joining Burisma's board, and Hunter's business partner in the same month. According to sources familiar with the FD-1023 form, the confidential source advised the Burisma executive to "get away" from the Bidens and to "not want to get involved" with them.
A source familiar with the document told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source describes a subsequent conversation with the Burisma executive after the 2016 presidential election. According to the source, the executive of Burisma told the confidential source that he was "an oracle," referring to their advice to "get away" from the Bidens out of dread of potential investigations into their business dealings.
The White House maintains that President Biden has never been involved in or discussed his son's business dealings. In addition, it was administration policy at the time to remove Shokin. The federal government is presently investigating Hunter Biden's "tax affairs." The investigation was initiated in 2018 in response to suspicious international transactions.
Related Article: Biden Criminal Bribery: FBI To Bring Doc to Capitol Hill, Accuser Is 'Highly Credible' Source
