Republicans release FBI form with unverified Biden-Burisma claims

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Republicans on Thursday released a copy of an unverified tip to the FBI alleging a corrupt scheme by President Biden — a tip that has not been substantiated but nonetheless fuels GOP investigations into the Biden family.

The information, recorded in an FD-1023 form documenting interactions with a confidential informant, was released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Oversight Republicans who threatened to hold the FBI director in contempt of Congress amid efforts to review and obtain the document.

The tip revolves around an allegation long pushed by former President Donald Trump involving then-Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian prosecutor.

While executing Obama administration policy that had been coordinated with European allies, then-Vice President Biden argued that Ukrainian Attorney General Viktor Shokin was corrupt and threatened to withhold $1 billion in funding from Ukraine unless Shokin was fired.

Other members of the international community have also pushed for Shokin’s removal.

Hunter Biden was at the time a board member of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which was being investigated by the prosecutor’s office.

There has never been hard evidence that current President Biden called for Shokin’s ouster in order to help his son. Some reports said the investigation was, in fact, dormant at the time Biden called for Shokin’s ouster. But Trump’s insistence that Ukraine investigate the issue or risk losing US aid led to his first impeachment in 2019.

Form FD-1023 released Thursday details second-hand allegations that Burisma CEO and founder Mykola Zlochevsky thought Hunter Biden’s presence on the board could help insulate the company from its issues with the prosecutor, that Zlochevsky sent millions of dollars to President Biden as well as Hunter Biden, and that there are two records about it involving President Biden.

These key details of the form are neither verified nor substantiated.

It all comes from a confidential FBI source — previously described by Republicans and Democrats informed on the matter as credible — who had spoken to Zlochevsky and other Burisma executives a few times. The source could not comment on the veracity of Zlochevsky’s statements regarding Hunter Biden.

Democrats also released information gathered during the first impeachment effort that included a conversation believed to be with Zlochevsky that contradicts information relayed in Form FD-1023.

The White House has strenuously denied any wrongdoing stemming from the case.

“It is remarkable that Congressional Republicans, in their eagerness to prosecute President Biden regardless of the truth, continue to push claims that have been denied for years and that they themselves have cautioned to take ‘with a grain of salt’ because they may be ‘made up,'” Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, said in a statement.

“These allegations would have been reviewed by Trump’s Justice Department, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, and a full impeachment trial of the former president centered on those same issues, and time and time again have been found to lack credibility,” Sams continued.

“It is clear that Congressional Republicans are determined to play shameless and dishonest politics and refuse to let the truth get in their way. It is long overdue for news organizations to hold them to basic levels of factual responsibility for their repeated and increasingly desperate efforts to mislead both the public and the press.

The FBI also chastised lawmakers for sharing the letter.

“We have repeatedly explained to Congress, in correspondence and briefings, how critical it is to keep this information confidential,” the FBI said in a statement.

“Today’s release of 1023 – at a minimum – unnecessarily jeopardizes the security of a confidential source.”

In a June letter obtained by The Hill, the FBI warned Comer and the Oversight Committee of the public disclosure of the dossier as they chose to do on Thursday.

“Consistent with our agreement, committee members were given a warning prior to reviewing the document that the information contained in subpoena FD-1023 could not be released outside of the House’s sensitive compartmented information facility. The Committee and its members were specifically advised that “wider release could present a risk of physical harm to FBI sources or others,” the FBI wrote in the letter to Comer.

“We are concerned that members have ignored the Committee’s agreement that the information in the document should no longer be disclosed.”

But House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said the form supports his committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.

“In the FBI filing, the Burisma executive claims he did not pay the ‘fat man’ directly but used multiple bank accounts to conceal the money. It sounds a lot like how the Bidens do business: using multiple bank accounts to hide the source and total amount of money,” Comer said in a statement.

The FBI’s confidential human source – identified as “CHS” in the document – reported that during a meeting at Burisma’s offices in late 2015 or early 2016, Burisma chief financial officer Vadim Porjarskii said Hunter Biden was hired to serve on the board of directors to “protect us, through his father, from all sorts of trouble”.

Porjarskii didn’t provide any additional or specific details about what that meant.

About two months later, the FBI source attended another meeting in Vienna, Austria, in 2016 with Burisma executives to discuss the acquisition of a US-based oil and gas company.

“CHS told Zlochevsky that due to Shokin’s investigation of Burisma, which was made public at the time, it would have a substantial negative impact on Burisma’s potential. [initial public offering (IPO)] in the USA. Zlochevsky replied something like, “Don’t worry, Hunter will take care of all these issues through his father,” the form said. “CHS did not ask any further questions about what that specifically meant.”

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When the FBI source asked why Zlochevsky would pay $20-30 million to buy a US company rather than just create a new US-based entity, Zlochevsky replied that it would be difficult to raise capital given the prosecutor’s investigation – and laughed when the CHS suggested paying just $50,000 for a lawyer to handle the case in Ukraine, in part because it included the number “5”.

“It costs $5 [million] pay a Biden, and $5 [million] to another Biden,” the FBI source recalled, telling Zlochevsky, noting that it was unclear if those payments had already been made.

When the FBI source suggested hiring normal American oil and gas advisers because the Bidens had no experience in the industry, Zlochevsky said Hunter Biden needed to be on the board “to make it all right,” adding that Hunter and Joe Biden said he should keep Hunter Biden and it was too late to change his decision.

“CHS understood this to mean that Zlochevsky had already paid the Bidens, presumably to ‘deal with Shokin,'” the form reads.

Later, in a phone call in 2016 or 2017, Zlochevsky complained about being “pressured into paying” the Bidens, the FBI source said. Zlochevsky said he had tapes that served as some sort of evidence that Zlochevsky was coerced into paying the Bidens to ensure that prosecutor Shokin was fired — with a total of 17 tapes, two of which implicated President Biden.

“Zlochevsky responded that he did not send funds directly to ‘Big Guy,'” which CHS said was a reference to Joe Biden. Zlochevsky further stated that it would take 10 years to find all bank records of illicit payments to President Biden.

The FBI source explained that it is common for businessmen in Russia and Ukraine to brag and show off, as well as pay “bribes” to various government officials.

Democrats and Republicans disagree on the importance of the document.

Reports say the FBI was never able to corroborate the information relayed by the informant, which Oversight Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said prevented him from being moved up the investigative chain.

“This Republican-released FBI document records unverified, second-hand, years-old allegations relayed by a confidential human source who said he could provide ‘no further opinion as to the veracity’ of these allegations. Even Senator Johnson has acknowledged that these allegations may have been fabricated out of thin air,” Raskin said in a statement Thursday.

“The release of this document isolated from explanatory context is another obviously desperate attempt by Committee Republicans to revive the aging and debunked conspiracy theories framed by Giuliani and distract from their continued failure to produce real evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the President, even at the cost of endangering the safety of FBI sources,” Raskin said.

Raskin noted that information gathered during the first impeachment effort included a conversation purported to be with Zlochevsky that contradicts FD-1023’s claims regarding communications with President Biden.

“No one from Burisma ever had any contact with Vice President Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement,” Zlochevsky said in the exchange, which appears to be with Vitaly Pruss, whom the letter describes as “another longtime associate of Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani, who was a close friend of Mr. Zlochevsky.

However, the conversation was given to Giuliani by Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian who was later convicted of making illegal contributions to former President Trump’s campaign.

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Zlochevsky also said “no” when asked if then-Vice President Biden or his team “helped you or your company in any way with trade deals or meetings with world leaders or any other assistance.”

Parnas also wrote in a letter to Comer earlier this week urging him to abandon efforts to uncover Biden family wrongdoing in Ukraine, calling the case “nothing more than a wild goose chase” that has been “debunked again and again.”

This story was updated at 5:23 p.m.

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