By Steve Neavling
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley on Thursday released an internal FBI document that contained an informant’s unverified claim that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in an illegal foreign bribery scheme.
The rare move by the Iowa Republican drew criticism from the FBI, which criticized lawmakers for ignoring their “significant concerns” about the dangers of releasing the material, CNN reports.
The release came after the bureau allowed members of the House oversight Committee to privately view the unclassified document, known as an FD-1023.
The White House denied the claims in the document and called them “debunked.”
In a news release, Grassley defended the release, saying it was “legally protected disclosures by Justice Department whistleblowers.”
“For the better part of a year, I’ve been pushing the Justice Department 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 said. “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 (James) Comer and I intend to find out.”
According to the document, the informant provided the information to federal investigators in June 2020. The allegations involve meetings and conversations dating back to as early as 2015.
An informant said Mykola Zlochevsky, the CEO of the Ukraine-based energy company Burisma, alleged in a 2016 meeting that he had made two $5 million payments to “the Bidens.”
“It costs 5 (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden,” Zlochevsky allegedly told the FBI informant at a 2016 meeting in Vienna, according to the document.
In the document, the FBI described the informant as highly credible, but indicated he was “not able to provide any further opinion as the veracity” of the allegations.
When the meeting occurred, Hunter Biden was serving on Burisma’s board, receiving $50,000 a month.
There’s still no evidence that Joe Biden ever received payments or was involved in his son’s work for the company.
