New Details: It's Looking Even Worse for the Bidens...and the FBI
Guy Benson
July 24, 2023 12:15 PM
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2023/07/24/more-smoke-bribery-allegations-starting-to-look-worse-for-the-bidensand-the-fbi-n2626117
On Friday, we analyzed a just-released FBI 'FD-1023' document, in which a trusted FBI informant asserted that executives from Burisma -- the Ukrainian energy company that famously employed then-Vice President Joe Biden's son, despite his dearth of relevant expertise, while the elder Biden was running point on Ukraine policy in the Obama administration -- had described a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that enriched both of the aforementioned Bidens. The Bureau's confidential human source (CHS) told investigators that the Burisma leaders held a dim view of Hunter Biden's personal value and intellect, but kept the generous payments flowing to him because Hunter would "take care of all of those issues through his dad.” The function of the younger Biden, the company's CFO reportedly said, was “to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
One such problem, allegedly, was an investigation by a Ukrainian prosecutor into Burisma, which the firm's leadership wanted to go away. To that end, per former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy's summary of the CHS' accusations, "the founder of Burisma recounted being pressured by then-Vice President Joe Biden to put Biden’s son Hunter on the Ukrainian energy company’s board, and for $10 million in bribes — $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden — in order to use Biden’s political influence to force the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma." That man was, in fact, fired, after Vice President Biden explicitly linked the firing as a prerequisite for unlocking $1 billion is US taxpayer aid. Biden subsequently boasted about this very episode in public remarks.
The Federalist's Margot Cleveland immediately noted that the CHS' account directly contradicted Biden's explanation for triggering the firing, writing that the Burisma executive's alleged statement to the CHS "proves significant because Joe Biden had long claimed he pushed for Shokin’s firing because Shokin was not investigating Burisma — which is the exact opposite of the details summarized in the FD-1023." The FD-1023 includes a recollection from the CHS, who said Burisma bigwigs weren't concerned about the claimed $10 million in bribery funds ever being discovered because they "did not send funds directly to “the big guy” (a reference to Joe Biden), and that the payments to the Bidens had been routed through so many companies and bank accounts that it would take investigators ten years to trace the payments to Joe Biden." As we pointed out, House Oversight Committee Republicans have produced bank records showing millions of dollars in foreign (largely Chinese) money flowing to nine different Biden family members through an intricate series of shell corporations -- quite possibly underscoring a modus operandi, at the very least.
My reaction to all of this was to highlight the serious nature of the informant's allegations, while also remaining healthily skeptical and asking more questions. One central question was whether any of the CHS' statements in the document were ever corroborated. If not, was that because they weren't investigated, or because they were probed and found to be unreliable? And if so, wouldn't that be a big deal? Again writing at The Federalist, Cleveland cites a source "familiar with the briefing" who says FBI agents did confirm several components of the CHS' story before handing the information off to the Delaware investigation -- who seem to have dropped those leads. If this is true, this isn't just more smoke engulfing the Bidens; it's another scandal at the DOJ and FBI:
The Federalist has now learned that the Pittsburgh FBI office had corroborated several details contained in the FD-1023 as part of the intake process that former Attorney General William Barr established before the election under the leadership of the Western District of Pennsylvania’s then-U.S. Attorney Scott Brady. Significantly, in briefing the Delaware U.S. attorney on the results of their office’s screening of evidence related to Ukraine, the Pittsburgh FBI agents told the Delaware office they had corroborated multiple facts included in the FD-1023, an individual with knowledge of the briefing told The Federalist. Following the late June 2020 interview with the CHS, the Pittsburgh FBI office obtained travel records for the CHS, and those records confirmed the CHS had traveled to the locales detailed in the FD-1023 during the relevant time period. The trips included a late 2015 or early 2016 visit to Kiev, Ukraine; a trip a couple of months later to Vienna, Austria; and travel to London in 2019.
The Federalist has also learned that the CHS’s handler corroborated the CHS’s claim that he had met with Oleksandr Ostapenko. According to the source with knowledge of the matter, the CHS’s handler told Pittsburgh’s FBI agents that the CHS told his handler he had an upcoming meeting with Ostapenko. The CHS’s contemporaneous claim of the planned rendezvous with Ostapenko tracked the timing of one of the visits the CHS claimed in the FD-1023 to have had with Ostapenko...That the Pittsburgh FBI office not only provided the Delaware office with a summary of the damning FD-1023 and its conclusion that it bore indicia of credibility but also identified several pieces of corroborating evidence is huge because, to date, it appears the Delaware office did nothing to investigate the allegations contained in the FD-1023.
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