Burisma executives thought Hunter Biden was “stupid” but felt they had to keep paying him to continue receiving political protection from his father, a confidential FBI source reported to the bureau in 2020.
The unverified allegations were captured on an FBI form that has been the source of fierce debate in Washington in recent months. Republicans released the four-page document Thursday.
The source, whose identity was redacted, said Burisma officials acknowledged that they hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” In a subsequent meeting, the officials expressed confidence that the Bidens would clear obstacles to get the Ukrainian natural gas company listed on an American stock exchange.
“Don’t worry, Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad,” one executive said, according to the FBI’s summary of the source’s information.
The source said one of the Burisma figures had 17 recordings involving the Bidens. Two included President Biden himself, the source said.
The document, known as an FD-1023, is the form the FBI uses to collect raw, unverified information from human sources. Republicans had obtained closed-door access but demanded that the Biden administration make the document public.
DOCUMENT: FBI document released by Sen. Charles E. Grassley
After that didn’t happen, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican and a champion of whistleblowers, released the FBI document with minimal redactions. He said he obtained it through legal means.
Mr. Grassley said the FBI form implicates the president in a “criminal bribery scheme.”
“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,” Mr. Grassley said. “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?”
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, joined Mr. Grassley in releasing the FBI document.
Mr. Comer said the source’s information “tracks closely with the evidence uncovered” by his committee.
The Burisma officials who provided the information that the source passed on were Chief Executive Officer Mykola Zlochevsky and Chief Financial Officer Vadim Pojarskii.
The document is dated June 30, 2020, and is based on FBI conversations with the source on June 26 and June 29.
The document is not classified, but the FBI has said releasing it could jeopardize agents’ ability to protect sources and methods.
Mr. Grassley released the document a day after two IRS agents publicly testified about their investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax evasion. They described tantalizing details that suggested his father’s involvement.
The agents said they were derailed from pursuing those leads.
The agents described the business ties that Hunter Biden built. From 2014 to 2019, Hunter Biden and his associates collected more than $17 million from a handful of foreign companies in Ukraine, China and Romania, they said.
Republicans said Hunter Biden offered those firms nothing other than his connections to his father.
The FD-1023 form released Thursday adds heft to that sentiment.
In one exchange, the source recalled a Burisma figure saying, “It cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden.” It wasn’t clear whether the payments had already been made.
The source challenged the need for Hunter Biden, and one Burisma executive agreed that he “was stupid” and said even his dog was smarter. The executive said Burisma had to keep Hunter Biden on its board “so everything will be okay.”
The source asked whether it was Hunter Biden or his father who told them to retain the son, according to the report, and the executive replied: “They both did.”
In a later conversation, though, a Burisma executive told the source that he had never sent payment to the “big guy.”
The FBI made clear in the document that the source wasn’t validating the information and didn’t know the executives well enough to gauge the veracity of the claims.
The source did say that in post-Soviet countries such as Ukraine, it was standard to have budget line items to pay bribes and it was common to make covert recordings of business interactions.
The IRS agents said they were not aware of the FBI’s information when they were pursuing their case against Hunter Biden.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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