Explosive details are emerging about the fresh allegations that President Joe Biden participated in a bribery scheme, and it ties back into an old scandal that has dogged him since his days as vice president.
According to an FBI informant, Burisma boss Mykola Zlochevsky claimed to have kept 15 audio recordings of Hunter Biden and two of then-Vice President Joe Biden as an “insurance policy,” reported the New York Post.
Burisma is the same Ukraine energy company that was in the headlines during the runup to the 2020 presidential election for allegedly giving Hunter Biden a board position in a quid pro quo deal when Biden was Obama’s vice president.
The Bidens deflected all accusations of impropriety about the arrangement, but the latest details have many Republican senators demanding the appointment of a special counsel to investigate.
The bombshell was revealed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who refused to accept at face value FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony using a redacted informant file. Instead, Grassley took to the Senate floor to reveal the details missing from the redacted document, which Wray finally produced for the House Oversight Committee after it was subpoenaed.
“Congress still lacks a full and complete picture with respect to what that document really says. That’s why it’s important that the document be made public without unnecessary redactions for the American people to see. Let me assist for purposes of transparency,” Grassley prefaced before proceeding, reported the NYP.
“The 1023 [form] produced to that House committee redacted reference that the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them. Seventeen total recordings. According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden,” Grassley went on to say, per the NYP.
“According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden. These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot,” Grassley explained, per the NYP, before adding, “the 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.”
Grassley then questioned the motivations of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
“So, as I’ve repeatedly asked since going public with the existence of the 1023, what, if anything, has the Justice Department and FBI done to investigate? The Justice Department and FBI must show their work. They no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt,” said Grassley, reported the NYP.
Republicans who have seen the FBI file have said that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden each received $5 million in exchange for then-Vice President Joe Biden demanding that Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin be fired, the NYP reported.
Biden has boasted that he used the threat of withholding $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine to get Shokin removed.
