A foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden claims to have numerous audio recordings with the duo, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) revealed on Monday.
Grassley said the foreign national allegedly told an FBI informant that he has 15 recordings of phone calls with Hunter Biden and 2 with then-vice president Joe Biden. The man is alleged to be an executive with Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy firm that hired Hunter Biden in 2014. The foreign national also claimed to have paid $5 million in bribes to each Biden.
"These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot," Grassley said in a Senate floor speech.
Grassley says the bombshell allegations about audio recordings are contained in redacted portions of an FBI memo that the bureau reluctantly provided last week to members of the House Oversight Committee. The memo, known as an FD-1023, describes information that an FBI confidential source provided about conversations he had in 2017 with the foreign executive, who is reported to be Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky.
Grassley blasted the FBI for redacting the information in the copy provided to the Oversight panel, saying that redacting the section "goes to show you the disrespect the FBI has for Congress." He urged the bureau to provide a complete, unredacted copy of the FD-1023 to Congress so that it can be made public.
He noted the Special Counsel Jack Smith investigated audio records as part of his probe into former president Donald Trump's handling of classified documents.
Burisma Holdings hired Hunter Biden in April 2014, when his father served as the Obama administration's chief liaison to Ukraine. Zlochevsky, the Burisma owner, was at the time under investigation in Europe for alleged bribery. Emails from Hunter Biden's laptop show he worked with attorneys and consulting firms to help Zlochevsky's legal fight and to improve Burisma's reputation in the West.