Republican senator releases FBI record revealing bribery allegations against Bidens

By Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Republican US Senator Chuck Grassley on Thursday released an FBI record that reveals new bribery allegations against then-Vice President Joe Biden and a Ukrainian business executive​​​​​​​.

Grassley said in a statement that he released the documents so that "American people can read for themselves, without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats, thanks to brave and heroic whistleblowers".

Grassley acquired the document, which is at the heart of an investigation led by House Oversight Chair James Comer, through legally protected disclosures by Justice Department whistleblowers, according to the statement from the senator's office.

“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. That sounds an awful lot like how the Bidens conduct business: using multiple bank accounts to hide the source and total amount of the money,” House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer said in the statement.

According to the FBI form, Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, told the FBI informant in 2016 during meeting in Vienna, Austria, that “it cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden”.

However, the document also adds that the informant has only met Zlochevsky in person on one occasion and has spoken to him only twice on the telephone and is “not able to provide any further opinion as to the veracity of Zlochevsky's aforementioned statements”.