Senator Chuck Grassley has released the long touted FD-1023 form, an uncorroborated FBI record documenting claims that a Burisma executive from Ukraine was coerced to pay the Bidens bribe money.
The conversation in question took place between the FBI and a confidential human source, who said Burisma executive Mykola Zlochevsky alleged to have paid a bribe to Joe and Hunter Biden.
Again, the document detailing the alleged conversation is completely uncorroborated.
“No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden took a bribe,” POLITICO reported, “though Republicans are searching for a smoking gun to link the president to the business agreements of his son, Hunter Biden, and other family members.”
Joe Biden and the recordings in question
Zlochevsky claims to have made recordings of 17 separate conversations with the Bidens (two of which were with Joe Biden). Zlochevsky also preserved text messages and documents that are supposedly financial records.
“According to Zlochevsky, the recordings and other evidence showed he was “somehow coerced into paying the Bidens to ensure Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired,” The New York Post reported.
Don’t get your hopes up
Consider me skeptical.
The House Oversight Committee has been pursuing the Bidens doggedly for months.
And occasionally they’ll “drop” some hot new disclosure about Biden-related misconduct that turns out to be nothing, just hot air.
So, I’m not going to place much stock in an uncorroborated FBI document detailing intel gleaned from a confidential source about some Burisma executive. And who knows, maybe the document holds the truth.
But I’m not taking information like that as fact until it’s proven as such. Especially given that the House Oversight Committee has, at times, appeared to be nakedly political in their pursuit of the Bidens.
Now, for what it’s worth, I’m becoming receptive to the idea that the Biden administration put its thumb on the scale with respect to the DOJ prosecution of former President Trump, and with respect to the tax investigation of Hunter Biden.
Questions have been raised about a two-tiered justice system that I believe deserve answering. But that doesn’t mean the Oversight Committee can’t be a Gingrich-style political weapon simultaneously.
Point being, I’m not getting a very trustworthy impression from either party and I’m reserving judgment.
Officials weigh in
Grassley had this to say: “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 whistleblower,”
Representative James Comer, meanwhile, implied that the DOJ had not been playing fair. “Given the misconduct and politicization at the Department of Justice, the American people must be able to read this record for themselves.”
The FBI was not pleased with the document release, stating that the document “at a minimum – unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source.”
“It’s not the first time the FBI has sent a warning over the document,” POLITICO reported. The FBI “told Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) last month that it believed some members of the panel “disregarded the Committee’s agreement that information from the document should not be further disclosed” after being able to review it behind closed doors.”
The Biden administration is downplaying the document disclosure and suggesting that Republicans are pushing “claims that have been debunked for years.”
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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