By Zachary Stieber
A confidential source provided information to the FBI in 2020 alleging that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden were bribed to pressure Ukraine to remove a prosecutor investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian company that employed the younger Mr. Biden, according to a document made public on July 20.
The source said he traveled to Burisma’s office in Ukraine in 2015 or 2016 with a man named Oleksandr Ostapenko. During the meeting, Vadim Pojarskii, chief financial officer of Burisma, told the source that the company hired Mr. Hunter Biden “to protect [the company], through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
Burisma contacted the source to seek assistance in buying a U.S. company to merge with in the hope that it could go public in the United States.
After an investigation of Burisma by Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was disclosed in 2016, the source told Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of Burisma, that the disclosure would have a negative effect on the prospective initial public offering. Mr. Zlochevsky replied that Mr. Hunter Biden “will take care of all of those issues through his dad,” according to the document.
Mr. Zlochevsky was also cited as saying that it cost $5 million to pay one Biden and $5 million to pay another Biden.
The source replied that payments to the Bidens would complicate matters and that the Bidens didn’t have experience with the oil and gas sector, according to the document. Mr. Zlochevsky said that despite his low opinion of Mr. Hunter Biden’s intelligence, Mr. Zlochevsky needed to keep him on the board “so everything will be okay.” He also said both Bidens had told him that Mr. Hunter Biden needed to remain on the board.
At about the same time, Mr. Joe Biden, U.S. vice president at the time, was pressuring Ukrainian officials to fire Mr. Shokin.
“‘We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Mr. Joe Biden said at a public event about the interaction, referring to a $1 billion loan guarantee he threatened to withhold. “Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired.”
Mr. Shokin has said that the threat was cited when he was ousted. He said in a sworn statement that then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked him to resign because of “pressure from the U.S. presidential administration, in particular from Joe Biden.”
The FBI source told the bureau that he gleaned from the conversation that payments had already been made to the Bidens, presumably to deal with Mr. Shokin.
Released by Congress
The document was a summary of conversations between the FBI and the source. It was dated July 30, 2020. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) released it, with redactions, after receiving a copy from the FBI. The bureau initially refused to hand over the document but finally did so after the House moved to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt.
“Throughout the FBI’s engagements with Congress, we have been guided by our obligation to protect the physical safety of confidential human sources and the integrity of sensitive investigations. We have repeatedly explained to Congress, in correspondence and in briefings, how critical it is to keep this source information confidential,” an FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
The release of the document “unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source,” according to the spokesperson.
A lawyer for Mr. Hunter Biden and the White House didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Congress wasn’t aware of the form until members were notified by a whistleblower.
IRS agent Gary Shapley, another whistleblower, who was involved in a criminal investigation of Mr. Hunter Biden, said in a hearing this week that he had never been shown the form.
“There were investigative steps that involved President Biden that were not allowed to be taken. Information like this would have been really helpful to have from investigators … when we received any pushback. When we were asked to take names out of document requests and search warrants, it would’ve been nice to have information that showed why, that helped prove why those names need to be in those requests,” Mr. Shapley said.
Mr. Grassley said, “Thanks to whistleblowers now the world can see … what the FBI tried to conceal. Serious allegations from trusted FBI source. What did the FBI do to investigate?”
Calls
In a call after first speaking to Mr. Zlochevsky, the source said Mr. Zlochevsky alleged he was pushed to pay the Bidens, using Russian slang that means to be forced or coerced. Mr. Zlochevsky said he possessed messages and recordings to support his statements. The source advised making sure the proof was retained. Mr. Zlochevsky said that because the investigation was over, he thought nobody would find out about the payments. He also wondered whether it would make any difference, legally, if he voluntarily made the payments or was forced to make them. Mr. Zlochevsky asked the source for help if something were to happen in the future, but the source declined.
The source didn’t talk to Mr. Zlochevsky for several years. Mr. Ostapenko, while meeting with the source in 2019, called Mr. Zlochevsky.
Mr. Zlochevsky asked the men whether they had heard the news about fresh investigations into the Bidens and Burisma and joked that the source was an “oracle.” Mr. Zlochevsky said he didn’t send any funds directly to the “big guy,” an apparent reference to Mr. Joe Biden, and that it would take investigators a decade to find records of the illicit payments.
The source told the FBI that Mr. Zlochevsky said he had 17 recordings, including two recordings that featured Mr. Joe Biden. Mr. Zlochevsky also said he had two documents that provided evidence of payments to the Bidens. The source also noted that Mr. Ostapenko has since started working for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The source also told the FBI that it’s common for businesses in Russia and Ukraine to bribe government officials and that it isn’t uncommon to make covert recordings. The source said the statements by Mr. Zlochevsky weren’t unusual or pretextual but that he wasn’t able to verify them.
Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, said the document contains serious allegations and should trigger a flurry of subpoenas from Congress as members work to verify the information, including the purported bribe to Mr. Joe Biden.
“If that indeed turns out to be true,” Mr. Brosnan told The Epoch Times, “I think everything should be on the table.”