New details from a previously redacted FBI document claim that the owner of Ukrainian gas company Burisma thought Hunter Biden was dumber than his dog.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Thursday dispersed more details from the FBI's FD-1023 document that has been claimed for months by Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky to contain "credible" evidence that President Joe Biden and his son engaged in questionable business dealings.
The document from June 2020 says that Joe and Hunter Biden each received $5 million from Mykola Zlochevsky, a former elected official and current owner of Burisma.
"For the better part of a year, I've been pushing the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI to provide details on its handling of very significant allegations from a trusted FBI informant implicating then-Vice President Biden in a criminal bribery scheme," Grassley told Newsweek. "While the FBI sought to obfuscate and redact, the American people can now read this document for themselves—without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats—thanks to brave and heroic whistleblowers.
"What did the Justice Department and FBI do with the detailed information in the document? And why have they tried to conceal it from Congress and the American people for so long? The Justice Department and FBI have failed to come clean, but Chairman Comer and I intend to find out."
Meetings with the FBI informant
In 2016, Zlochevsky met with an FBI informant at an outdoor coffee shop in Vienna, Austria, discussing the feasibility of Burisma acquiring a U.S.-based entity.
An unidentified individual also at the meeting said the conversation occurred around the same time that Joe Biden made public statements about now-former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin being corrupt, saying that he should be fired or removed from office.
Zlochevsky was told, according to the document, that Shokin's public investigation into Burisma would have negative effects on Burisma's IPO. The Burisma owner replied: "Don't worry, Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad."
Numerous media outlets reported that Shokin investigated but never sought to prosecute Burisma. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent testified in Trump's first impeachment inquiry that Shokin was corrupt and that the U.S. and its allies made a coordinated effort to remove him from his position.
When it was suggested that Zlochevsky/Burisma pay an attorney $50,000 to litigate the matter, Zlochevsky laughed at the thought, saying: "It costs $5 [million] to pay one Biden, and $5 [million] to another Biden," the document says. The informant said at the time that it was unverified whether such alleged payments were already made.
Then, when told that "some normal U.S. oil and gas advisors" should be hired due to the Bidens' lack of experience, Zlochevsky reportedly said that Hunter Biden "was stupid, and his [Zlochevsky's] dog was smarter."
Other conversations between the informant and Zlochevsky took place in 2016 and 2017, continuing until a final call in 2019.
White House: Republicans pushing 'debunked claims'
Grassley has been cautious when discussing the document and the 17 reported recordings involving a foreign national, saying that the claims he has been privy to are serious allegations. The veracity of their proof could not be fully vetted, he added.
Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, said in a statement to Newsweek that the claims by Grassley, Comer and others were previously scrutinized by Trump officials in the DOJ and made front and center at one of the former president's impeachment trials.
"It is remarkable that congressional Republicans, in their eagerness to go after President Biden regardless of the truth, continue to push claims that have been debunked for years and that they themselves have cautioned to take 'with a grain of salt' because they could be 'made up,'" Sams said.
"Over and over again, they have been found to lack credibility. It's clear that congressional Republicans are dead set on playing shameless, dishonest politics and refuse to let truth get in the way."
Committee chair claims document shows pattern
Comer headed a whistleblower hearing on Wednesday involving two IRS employees who allege that federal authorities impeded their previous attempts to investigate Hunter Biden, alluding to alleged tax violations among other crimes.
"In the FBI's record, the Burisma executive claims that he didn't pay the 'big guy' directly but that he used several bank accounts to conceal the money," Comer said in a statement issued Thursday. "That sounds an awful lot like how the Bidens conduct business: using multiple bank accounts to hide the source and total amount of the money."
Newsweek reached out to Comer, the FBI and the DOJ via email for comment.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who sits on the GOP-led House Oversight Committee and showed nude images of Hunter Biden during Wednesday's hearing, tweeted that the new information from the redacted FBI document sheds light on why the U.S. is heavily involved in the Russia-Ukraine war.
"Is this why Biden has America involved in the war in Ukraine???" Greene said. "Joe Biden is a criminal and is compromised! And he is leading us into WW3 bc Zelenskyy has proof of more Biden crimes."
Lev Parnas, a main figure in Trump's Ukraine-related impeachment trial who later made remarks that a lack of a Ukrainian investigation into President Biden may have prevented a second Trump term, called out the House Oversight Committee for its lack of evidence.
"Same old conspiracy theories," Parnas tweeted. "Show us the tapes or the wire transfers. You can't because they don't exist."
Same old conspiracy theories. Show us the tapes or the wire transfers. You can’t because they don’t exist.
— Lev Parnas (@levparnas) July 20, 2023
