WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says an informant file that he’s seeking from the FBI links President Biden to a $5 million bribery scheme while he was vice president.
Comer (R-Ky.) revealed the size of the alleged bribe for the first time Wednesday in a letter threatening FBI Director Christopher Wray with contempt proceedings if he doesn’t share the file pursuant to a subpoena.
The informant tip is dated June 30, 2020, Comer wrote — an additional clue in the mysterious allegation that triggered a guessing game due to the Biden family’s extensive consulting work in countries where the then-VP held sway.
In a remarkable coincidence, Ukrainian officials held a press conference in Kyiv on June 13, 2020 — 17 days before the FBI tipoff — where they showed off $5 million in cash allegedly offered as a bribe to end an investigation of natural gas company Burisma’s founder Mykola Zlochevsky.
Burisma employed first son Hunter Biden from 2014 to 2019 and an executive from the firm met Vice President Biden at an April 16, 2015, dinner in Washington.
The cash seized by Ukrainian officials in 2020 was paid in American $100 bills that were put on display — and matches the amount that Joe Biden allegedly received years earlier.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said at the time that three Kyiv bureaucrats, including a current and a former tax official, were arrested and that an additional $1 million was offered to an office-holder working as a middleman.
Ukrainian anti-corruption prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky said at the press conference that “Biden Jr. and Biden Sr. do not appear in this particular proceeding,” Reuters reported at the time.
Two-and-a-half weeks later, however, the FBI document accusing Joe Biden of bribery was “created or modified,” according to Comer’s letter.
The Oversight Committee has not confirmed the country where Biden allegedly accepted the bribe as vice president, but a source previously told The Post that the allegation is not believed to deal with China, where the Biden family had two lucrative ventures — putting the focus on other nations such as Russia and Ukraine.
It’s unclear what US policy decisions would or could have been made by Biden in exchange for money if the bribery does involve Burisma.
Biden allegedly plugged US support for the natural gas industry in Ukraine days after his son Hunter secretly joined the board of Burisma, according to former White House stenographer Mike McCormick, who has been attempting — without success — to contact Delaware US Attorney David Weiss in order to testify to a grand jury investigating the first son for tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying and other crimes.
As vice president, the elder Biden also used US aid as leverage to pressure Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who had investigated Burisma, though House Democrats — who impeached President Donald Trump in 2019 for pushing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens — presented evidence at Trump’s trial that US allies also advocated for the prosecutor’s ouster due to his own corruption.
Hunter Biden earned up to $1 million per year while on Burisma’s board despite no relevant industry experience.
Comer issued the legally binding subpoena demanding the informant file on May 3 after a whistleblower tipped off Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The FBI refused to provide the file on May 10, citing concerns about informant confidentiality, as well as the fact that tips may be uncorroborated.
The committee chairman says the FBI has proceeded to give patronizing briefings to staffers at follow-up meetings.
“As previously stated, the whistleblower disclosures indicated that the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) are in possession of an FD-1023 form describing an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions,” Comer wrote to Wray.
“The FBI’s refusal to produce this single document is obstructionist. Nevertheless, to narrow the breadth of the subpoena, we are providing additional terms based on unclassified and legally protected whistleblower disclosures that may be referenced in the FD-1023 form: ‘June 30, 2020’ and ‘five million,'” he added.
“These terms relate to the date on the FD-1023 form and its reference to the amount of money the foreign national allegedly paid to receive the desired policy outcome.”
“Your response to the subpoena is due May 30, 2023,” Comer warned Wray. “If the FD-1023 form is not produced by that date, the Committee will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.”
A congressional contempt vote typically is used to shame the subject, but it can also carry criminal penalties. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder, for example, was held in criminal contempt of the House in 2012 for refusing to hand over documents in the “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal. But Holder’s Justice Department chose not pursue a prosecution of its own leader, meaning he faced no criminal penalties.
“The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people,” the bureau told The Post in a statement Thursday. “Releasing confidential source information could potentially jeopardize investigations and put lives at risk. The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
