5 highlights from the Hunter Biden hearings
FBI document highlights alleged payments to the Bidens
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released the full contents of a document detailing a confidential informant's unverified testimony to the FBI Thursday.
The testimony, given on June 26, 2020, focused on the confidential human source's meeting with senior officials at Burisma in either late 2015 or early 2016. The informant claims he met with Burisma Chief Financial Officer Vadim Pojarskii, who told him that Hunter Biden was on the board to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems."
At the time, Burisma was allegedly seeking to purchase a U.S.-based oil and gas company "for purposes of merging it with Burisma." In a later conversation with Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky, the confidential informant warned that a corruption investigation spearheaded by then-Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin could derail the company's efforts to conduct business in the U.S. Zlochevsky reportedly responded, "Don't worry Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad."
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In a phone call shortly after the 2016 presidential election that Donald Trump won, Zlochevsky allegedly complained that he was "pushed to pay" the Bidens. The Burisma CEO had previously expressed confidence that "this thing will go away anyway," referring to the corruption investigation, and rejected the confidential human source's advice to fire Hunter Biden.
According to the FBI document, "Zlochevsky responded that he appreciated CHS's advice, but that 'it's too late to change his decision.' CHS understood this to mean that Zlochevsky had already paid the Bidens, presumably to 'deal with Shokin'" by getting him fired. Zlochevsky insisted to the confidential human source that he had several "recordings" outlining how he was coerced to make payments to the Bidens.
A 2019 telephone call between Zlochevsky and the confidential human source allegedly discussed investigations into the Bidens and Burisma ahead of the 2020 presidential election, with the CHS telling the Burisma CEO that he might have difficulty explaining wire transfers consisting of payments to the Bidens upon which he assured him that he did not send any funds to "the Big Guy," referring to Joe Biden.
The rest of the document consisted of information Grassley already shared, specifically that Zlochevsky had 17 recordings of conversations with the Bidens, including two with now-President Biden and 15 with just Hunter Biden. The recordings, as summarized by the confidential human source based on his discussion with Zlochevsky, purport to illustrate how the Burisma CEO was "coerced" into paying the Bidens in exchange for ensuring Shokin's firing.
Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, criticized Republicans for releasing the document, saying the claims are nothing more than "unverified, secondhand claims."
"As the antics and pratfalls continue to multiply, it's now clear that Chairman Comer threatened to hold FBI Director Wray in contempt over a document that Senator Grassley already had in his possession and Chairman Comer had already viewed," Raskin said in a statement. "Now Chairman Comer and Senator Grassley are disseminating these unverified claims without the critical context provided by the FBI in a briefing to Chairman Comer and myself because, as Senator Grassley admitted, they do not care about the accuracy of these allegations, evidently just their political utility."
"This FBI document released by Republicans records the unverified, secondhand, years-old allegations relayed by a confidential human source who stated he could not provide 'further opinion as to the veracity' of these allegations," Raskin added. "Even Senator [Ron] Johnson recognized these allegations may have been fabricated out of thin air."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
