The Biggest Corruption Scandal in American History?
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The Biggest Corruption Scandal in American History?
What we learned today from the release of the long withheld FD-1023.
For months now, Sen. Chuck Grassley has pushed the Justice Department to explain what investigative procedures had been undertaken in response to evidence implicating then-Vice President Biden in a criminal bribery scheme involving Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. The FD-10231 report released today has been the subject of an extensive dispute between the House Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed the document, and the FBI, which fought its release and then made a redacted version of the document available to the committee with significant restrictions in June.
The minimally redacted FD-1023, which details a “highly credible” confidential human source’s (CHS)2 reporting of the aforementioned bribery scheme, was acquired by the House Oversight Committee via legally protected disclosures by Justice Department whistleblowers.
According to the CHS, the founder of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, recounted being pressured by Biden to put his son Hunter on the Ukrainian energy company’s board, and for $10 million in bribes — $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden — in order to use Biden’s political influence to force the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor (Viktor Shokin) investigating Burisma. As is well known by now, in late 2015 Biden threatened then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko that the Obama administration would withhold $1 billion in congressionally approved U.S. funding unless Kyiv fired Shokin. Biden later bragged about the threat in a 2018 interview at the Council on Foreign Relations.3
The CHS described four conversations with Zlochevsky, beginning with a meeting near Kyiv in late 2015 or early 2016 and continuing through a 2019 phone call.4 The first took place at Burisma headquarters and included a discussion of the company’s acquisition of an American energy firm that would allow them to IPO in the U.S. Burisma CFO Vadim Pojarskii listed the company’s board of directors, which included Hunter Biden, who, he said, was brought on “to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”5
When the CHS inquired as to why Burisma needed his (the CHS’s) assistance with the acquisition of a U.S. energy company given Hunter Biden’s involvement, Pojarskii conceded that the younger Biden’s limited intelligence meant he was of little value outside of the influence he could exercise over his father. Asked whether Hunter Biden or Joe Biden told Zlochevsky he should “retain” the younger Biden, Zlochevsky replied, “They both did.”
At a second meeting two months later, the CHS expressed concern that Shokin’s investigation of Burisma would damage the company’s prospective IPO in the U.S. Zlochevsky replied something to the effect of, “don’t worry, Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad.” He then admitted that, while his dog was smarter than Hunter Biden, Hunter was needed “so everything will be okay.” Zlochevsky then allegedly went on to say that he had paid $5 million each to Hunter and Joe Biden. According to the CHS, such a disclosure was not at all unusual in Eastern European circles, where businessmen brag about their influence and often engage in one-upmanship.
In a subsequent phone call shortly after the 2016 election in which he lamented Trumps win, Zlochevsky said that he never wanted to pay off the Bidens but was “pushed to pay,” even using the Russian word “poluchili,” a slang term often employed by criminals to describe being forced to pay a bribe. Zlochevsky also allegedly claimed to have 17 recordings of conversations with the Bidens — two of which involved Joe — as well as “many text messages” and two documents that the informant “understood to be” financial records of “payment(s) to the Bidens.” These conversations showed Zlochevsky had been “coerced into paying the Bidens to ensure Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired.”
In their final discussion, Zlochevsky told the CHS over the phone that he had been an “oracle” for warning against partnering with the Bidens due to political controversy in the U.S. When the CHS said that it might be difficult explaining suspicious wire transfers that could prove illicit payments to the Bidens, Zlochevsky responded that he hadn’t sent funds directly to “the big guy,”6 and that the payments had been routed through so many companies and bank accounts that “it would take them [investigators] 10 years to find the records.”
But he couldn’t anticipate Hunter Biden leaving his laptop at a repair shop, which exposed his Burisma deputy setting up Hunter’s Maltese bank account.
Let’s zoom out now for a recap. Instead of the DOJ and FBI following the trail of evidence that was practically gift-wrapped for them, the following happened: Democrats impeached Trump, the FBI needlessly raided Mar-a-Lago, and the DOJ charged Trump with felonies. Meanwhile, the DOJ and FBI worked together to hide the FD-1023, prevented investigators from questioning the Bidens and even secretly tipped the Bidens off to an investigation, and then gave Hunter Biden a sweetheart deal to immunize him and try to make the public forget about this corruption scandal.
Today’s public release of the FD-1023 is significant because it comes on the heels of yesterday’s IRS whistleblowers’ testimony before the House Oversight Committee that suggested the CHS’s reporting corroborates other evidence. During the hours-long hearing, whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler both told lawmakers they had never seen the FD-1023. Significantly, Ziegler then stated: “There’s things that are contained on that document that could further corroborate other information that we might be having an issue corroborating because it could be regarding a foreign official. So if we have information regarding that in a document or a witness, we can further corroborate later evidence.”
Ziegler didn’t explain what, if any, information they may have discovered during their investigation into Hunter Biden because federal law prohibits the discussion of confidential taxpayers’ information, other than through specific procedures. Ziegler instead said, “if that’s something that we have, we can turn that over to the House Ways and Means Committee.”
This testimony suggests that the IRS’s investigation likely uncovered evidence the FD-1023 corroborated. With that form now public, both Ziegler and Shapley can study it and assess what documentary material, such as wire transfer reports, they uncovered that’s now corroborated.
The FD-1023 release is also significant because it comes on the same day as this:
We already knew that the FBI took possession of Hunter Biden’s laptop in December of 2019. What we didn’t know was whether or not the FBI agents who had warned Facebook and Twitter of an imminent “Russian disinformation” dump related to Hunter Biden also knew that the FBI had the laptop. The people who dismissed the Twitter Files revelations as conspiracy theory fodder have always claimed that “compartmentalization” would have prevented the FBI agents warning of the disinfo from knowing that other FBI agents had the laptop. But now we know they did.
That’s proof of a criminal conspiracy by high ranking FBI officials to influence the 2020 election by discrediting the Hunter Biden laptop story before the media got to it. The FBI’s “Foreign Influence Task Force” was warning of illegal influence by shadowy Russian digital saboteurs as it literally exercised illegal influence to help Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump.
No matter how low of an opinion you might have of the FBI, it’s not low enough. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a rogue agency that constitutes a legitimate threat to democracy.
An FD-1023 is a Confidential Human Source Reporting Document.
The CHS is a Ukrainian-American who has been a trusted, handsomely paid FBI source for over a decade and has a track record of reliability.
In addition to the prosecutor’s ouster, former White House stenographer Mike McCormick says Joe Biden advocated U.S. support for Ukraine’s natural gas industry during a trip to Kyiv just days after Hunter quietly joined Burisma, in what was described as a clear conflict of interest. Biden also met with Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi at an April 16, 2015, dinner at DC’s Cafe Milano.
The informant said each of his conversations with Zlochevsky occurred in the presence of a man named Alexander Ostapenko—giving the FBI a possible supporting witness.
It has previously been reported that Hunter Biden’s laptop stored emails from Pojarskii explicitly discussing the understanding that Hunter would use his influence to assist Burisma, including in arranging for U.S. government officials to help the company fend off Ukrainian government pressure.
The “big guy” reference is obviously significant because the same nickname was used to describe a tentative 10% cut for Joe Biden in 2017 as part of a partnership with Chinese-government-linked CEFC China Energy.
The Biggest Corruption Scandal in American History?
This should have the news media on fire, and impeachment activities starting in the House. The fact that neither of these are occurring tells us that the it isn't just the Biden family that is corrupt, it is the entire elite-media-political ruling class.
One of my conservative friends a few years back told me he was very concerned about where the country was heading. I told him that the US had a historically tendency of going off track, but the eventually and slowly the people came to their senses and elected new leaders that got it back on track.
Today I worry that my friend was correct... we are so far off track but the majority seems to not care, and in fact, support the corrupt regime. I hope I am wrong. There are signs that people are waking up... but there are other signs that the ruling class establishment has too much media influence power and can just brainwash the masses to adopt its beneficial narrative. I cannot believe how many educated and articulate people have jumped head first into the media narrative Kool Aid and foam at the mouth when they are criticized and challenged. For example, they claim Joe Biden is a great man and doing a great job... without any hint at the sarcasm I was expecting!
Don’t remember much about what the Teapot Dome scandal during the Harding admin was about, but this is clearly the worst corruption of my lifetime. Way way worse than Watergate, which it looks increasingly likely was a CIA setup of Nixon.