President Biden and his son Hunter allegedly "coerced" Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky to pay them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company fired, according to allegations contained in an unclassified FBI document released Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Grassley said he had released the document so that the American people can "read this document for themselves without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats."
The document is an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, which Grassley acquired through legally protected disclosures by Department of Justice whistleblowers, according to the senator's office.
That document reflects the FBI's interview with a "highly credible" confidential human source (CHS) who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top executive of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings over the course of several years, starting in 2015. At that time, Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma.
Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board. The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin were not fired.
The White House has denied the allegations.
Here are the top five most significant allegations in the FBI FD-1023 form:
According to the document, Zlochevsky told the confidential human source that Hunter Biden "'was stupid, and his [Zlochevsky’s] dog was smarter.'"
But Zlochevsky told the source that he "needed to keep Hunter Biden [on the board] ‘so everything will be okay.'"
The source went on to ask "whether Hunter Biden or Joe Biden told Zlochevsky he should retain Hunter."
"Zlochevsky replied: ‘They both did,’" the document said.
The source reiterated that this was a "mistake," and that Zlochevsky "should fire Hunter Biden and deal with Shokin’s investigation directly so that the matter" would stay an issue in Ukraine and so that it would not "turn into some international matter," to which Zlochevsky stressed not to worry and said that "this thing will go away anyway."
Zlochevsky said that Burisma had "hired Hunter Biden ‘to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.’"
At the time, Biden was vice president and was overseeing U.S.-Ukraine policy.
Zlochevsky also told the source "something to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, Hunter will take care of those issues through his dad."
The form details a "2016/2017 telephone call" the source had with Zlochevsky after the 2016 presidential election. Zlochevsky said he was "not happy Trump won the election."
"CHS asked Zlochevsky whether he was concerned about Burisma’s involvement with the Bidens," the form states. "Zlochevsky stated he didn't want to pay the Bidens and he was ‘pushed to pay’ them."
The source explained to the FBI agent taking notes that the Russian term Zlochevsky used to explain the payments was "poluchili." The form states that "literally translates to; 'got it’ or ‘received it’ but is also used in "Russian criminal slang for being ‘forced or coerced to pay.’"
At that point, Shokin had already been fired. Zlochevsky said that "nobody would find out about his financial dealings with the Bidens."
The source warned Zlochevsky in a 2019 conversation that he "might have difficulty explaining suspicious wire transfers that may evidence any (illicit) payments to the Bidens."
"Zlochevsky responded he did not send any funds directly to the ‘Big Guy’ (which CHS understood was a reference to Joe Biden)," the form states.
The form says that the confidential source asked Zlochevsky how many companies and bank accounts he controlled, to which he responded that it would "take them (investigators) 10 years to find the records (i.e., illicit payments to Joe Biden)."
The source told Zlochevsky that he hoped he had "some back-up (proof) for your words (namely, that Zlochevsky was ‘forced’ to pay the Bidens)."
"Zlochevsky replied he has many text messages and ‘recordings’ that show that he was coerced to make such payments," the form states. "CHS told Zlochevsky he should make certain that he should retain those recordings."
The source said that Zlochevsky said he had "a total of 17 recordings" involving the Bidens; "two of the recordings included Joe Biden, and the remaining 15 recordings only included Hunter Biden."
The source said that those recordings "evidence Zlochevsky was somehow coerced into paying the Bidens to ensure" that Shokin would be fired.
The source said Zlochevsky also had "two documents (which CHS understood to be wire transfer statements, bank records, etc.), that evidence some payment(s) to the Bidens were made, presumably in exchange for Shokin’s firing."
