U.S. President Joe Biden reacted dismissively on Thursday, June 8th, when a New York Post reporter asked him to comment on whether he, during his tenure as vice president, had accepted a $5 million bribe from Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
In response to these allegations, Biden quipped, “Where’s the money?,” followed by “it’s a bunch of malarkey.”
The question came mere hours after FBI Director Christopher Wray—to stave off being held in contempt by Congress—agreed to let House Oversight Committee members review an internal FBI document.
The document, a so-called FD-1023 form dated June 30th, 2020, is said to contain the FBI’s interview with a confidential source who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with Burisma executive Mykola Zlochevsky over the course of several years, starting in 2015.
The FBI source stated that the latter had told him or her that he had paid $5 million to both president Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, to shake off a corruption investigation, and get then-prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired.
Former President Donald Trump and his allies claim Joe Biden abused his position as vice president to pressure Ukraine into firing Shokin to protect his son Hunter from an investigation into Burisma. Democrats deny this and argue such an investigation was but a ploy to smear then-candidate Joe Biden.
As vice president, in 2015, Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire Shokin, who was criticized by many in the West for not doing enough to crack down on corruption.
While Biden has always denied claims of corruption, a statement made in January 2018 at a Council of Foreign Relations event raised eyebrows.
In one fragment, the former vice president boasted that he ordered the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin or the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in aid. “I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired,” Biden had said. Shokin was fired in March 2016.
According to Republican Members of Congress who reviewed the FBI document on Capitol Hill, multiple members of the Biden family were paid $5 million each, a fact concealed through the use of multiple bank accounts. They said they would sift through further bank records and suspicious activity reports to proceed with their investigation into the Biden family’s finances.
Since having read the file, several Republican Members of Congress, among whom prominent Biden critics Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), have voiced their concerns.
“There [were] two separate transactions, one that went to Joe Biden for $5 million, one that went to Hunter Biden for $5 million,” Luna told Fox News correspondent Chad Pergram. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Joe Biden is guilty of bribery 100%.”
Speaking to The Daily Caller, Greene said that the information in the document “implicates Joe Biden in a pay-to-play bribery scheme to get a prosecutor fired that was investigating Burisma where Hunter Biden sat on the board.”
According to her, the document is “impeachable” as it “implicates our national security” and puts Americans “at risk” amid the war in Ukraine. Greene added that Biden “needs to be prosecuted for this, and I would argue that he should serve jail time.”
During an earlier appearance on Fox Business, Republican congressman Andy Biggs (R-Az.) had accused Biden of “gross criminal misconduct,” which was possibly “treasonous.”
The White House maintains that President Biden has never been involved in his son’s business dealings, nor discussed business dealings with him. Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation over his taxes and foreign business work since 2018.
