Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Thursday released a previously confidential FBI document that alleges a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that included President Joe Biden, son Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings.
According to a partially redacted FD-1023 form Grassley published online, a wealthy Ukrainian oligarch said he was “coerced” into paying the Biden family.
The form, dated June 30, 2020, cited a “confidential human source” who described how the Bidens allegedly leveraged their influence for a shakedown of the company.
Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma beginning in 2014 in spite of the fact he had no previous work experience in the oil and gas sector.
Per an FBI source, he was viewed as “stupid” but was kept on the board because his father was vice president and the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine at the time.
Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky allegedly told the FBI informant at a 2016 meeting in Austria that “it cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden,” according to the FD-1023 form.
The comments, per the confidential source, were made in relation to Burisma’s then-plans to buy an energy company in the United States.
“Zlochevsky made some comment that although Hunter Biden ‘was stupid, and his (Zlochevsky’s) dog was smarter,’ Zlochevsky needed to keep Hunter Biden (on Burisma’s board) ‘so everything will be okay,'” the document said.
The FBI’s source also reportedly inquired at one point whether Hunter Biden or Joe Biden told Zlochevsky he should “retain” Hunter Biden as a board member of his company during a conversation.
“They both did,” Zlochevsky allegedly said in a response.
The document said that in 2017, “Zlochevsky said he ‘was not happy Trump won the election’ and that he was ‘concerned about Burisma’s involvement with the Bidens.’”
It further quoted the Burisma owner as saying he “didn’t want to pay the Bidens and he was ‘pushed to pay’ them.’”
When asked about allegedly paying money to the family, the source said Zlochevsky used Russian slang that translated into “forced or coerced to pay.”
The document also touched on the dismissal of former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma for alleged corruption when he was sacked.
Per the document, Zlochevsky was not initially interested in dealing with the Bidens and would have preferred “‘some normal [American] oil and gas advisors’ because the Bidens have no experience with that business sector.”
He was allegedly concerned because his company was under investigation and fretted no sale would go through.
“CHS reiterated CHS’s opinion that Zlochevsky was making a mistake and he should fire Hunter Biden and deal with Shokin’s investigation directly so that the matter will remain an issue in Ukraine, and not tum into some international matter,” the FBI FD-1023 said.
“Zlochevsky responded something to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, this thing will go away.'”
The source told the FBI he advised Zlochevsky to cut ties with the Bidens.
“Zlochevsky responded that he appreciated CHS’s advice, but that ‘it’s too late to change his decision,'” the document said. “CHS understood this to mean that Zlochevsky had already had paid the Bidens, presumably to ‘deal with Shokin.'”
Biden once publicly bragged that he had threatened to withhold U.S. aid to Ukraine unless a prosecutor in the country was fired.
On Thursday, Grassley lashed out at the Justice Department and FBI in a statement for withholding the document for years.
“What did the Justice Department and FBI do with the detailed information in the document?” the senator asked. “And why have they tried to conceal it from Congress and the American people for so long?”
He added, “The Justice Department and FBI have failed to come clean.”
Grassley vowed a thorough investigation into the claims made by the FBI informant.
The FD-1023 can be read in its entirety here.