Update, 2/16/2024: Special counsel David Weiss has charged FBI whistleblower Alexander Smirnov, 43, with felony false statement and obstruction crimes, alleging Smirnov lied about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden having received $5 million each in bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Original story: “Now, it’s up to the FBI to tell us what they’ve done, in regard to this,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday, in a video announcing the public release of a FBI document detailing allegations by a “highly credible” FBI confidential human source (CHS), implicating then-Vice President Joe Biden in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme.
Grassley’s video is included in his tweet providing the PDF text of FBI form 1023 (dated June 30, 2020), which describes the source’s interactions during the Obama Administration with various individuals involved with Ukrainian gas company Bursima.
Grassley summarized the allegations in a press release announcing the public release of the “unclassified FBI-generated record describing an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a Ukrainian business executive,” Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky.
Embroiled in a corruption investigation, Burisma hired then-Vice President Biden’s son, Hunter, for “protection” and later was “coerced” to pay the Biden’s millions, according to the source.
Prosecutor Shokin was subsequently fired, because Biden threatened to withhold a billion dollars of aid to Ukraine. Biden has openly bragged that he used the billion dollar aid as leverage to force Ukraine to fire Shokin, though he hasn’t admitted that he wanted the prosecutor fired because he was looking into a company that was employing his son, Hunter.
🚨 I’ve released the 1023 I’ve been working on getting from the FBI for a yr. Now u can read it for yourself thx to patriotic whistleblowers pic.twitter.com/ooGYR7fU02
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 20, 2023
Grassley describes the source's account of how Zlochevsky's claim he was coerced to pay Joe Biden protection money:
“According to the FBI’s confidential human source, executives for Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, brought Hunter Biden on the board to ‘protect us through his dad, from all kinds of problems.’ At the time, Burisma was seeking to do business in the United States, but was facing a corruption investigation in Ukraine, led by then-Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
“Regarding that investigation’s impact on its ambitions in North America, Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky reportedly said, ‘Don't worry Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad.’ Zlochevsky reportedly stated that he had to pay $5 million to Hunter Biden and $5 million to Joe Biden, an arrangement he described as ‘poluchili,’ which is Russian crime slang for being ‘forced or coerced to pay,’ according to the document.”
…
“In the FBI’s record, the Burisma executive claims that he didn’t pay the ‘big guy’ directly but that he used several bank accounts to conceal the money.”
In the 1023, the source quotes Zlochevsky saying that he has proof of the coercion, in the form of both text messages and recordings, Grassley explains:
“Zlochevsky claimed to have many text messages and recordings that show that he was coerced into paying the Bidens to ensure Shokin was fired. Specifically, he claimed to have two recordings with Joe Biden and 15 recordings with Hunter Biden. Zlochevsky also retained two documents, presumably financial records, as evidence of the arrangement, but said he didn’t send any funds directly to the ‘Big Guy,’ a term understood to be a reference to Joe Biden.”
Because the money was funneled through multiple companies and bank accounts, it would take investigators 10 years to find the records of the illicit payments, Zlochevsky told the source, according to the 1023.
The public release of the unclassified 1023 comes after the FBI fought to nearly a year to prevent its release, despite being subpoenaed to release it.