Sen. Grassley: Ukrainian Executive Named in Allegations About Bidens Taped Calls for ‘Insurance’

The recent allegations about President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, have taken a new turn. According to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Ukrainian executive involved in the allegations allegedly kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them for “insurance.”

“These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in [the] case that he got into a tight spot,” the senator said. “The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.”

Grassley cited an FBI informant’s report that he and members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee were permitted to view last week as the source of the new allegations. The document, an FBI form FD-1023, had a redacted reference to the recordings, which allegedly include 15 phone conversations between the Ukrainian gas executive and Hunter Biden and two phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Political Infection

Grassley was the first member of Congress to be made aware of the FD-1023 report’s existence from a whistleblower’s disclosures. He then shared the information with Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who is spearheading a probe of the Biden family’s business dealings.

Initially, the FBI declined to produce the document at their request, prompting a congressional subpoena. After Comer threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress, Wray agreed to allow Grassley and the committee to view the document in a secure facility.

On the Senate floor, Grassley noted that the document he and Comer reviewed had fewer redactions than the version shown to the other committee members. But as the FD-1023 form is an unclassified document, he wondered why redactions were considered necessary.

“Director Wray placed redactions on a document that’s already unclassified. … More than that, the FBI made Congress review a redacted, unclassified document in a classified facility. That goes to show you the disrespect that the FBI has for Congress.”

The senator also questioned whether the case was being adequately investigated.

“This senator will do all that he can to fight political infection in the Department of Justice and the FBI. And you fight it, then, by bringing transparency to what this government does.”

Deeply Troubling

After reviewing the informant’s report, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on June 8 that the allegations it contained were “nothing short of deeply troubling.”

According to Greene, the report detailed how Burisma Holdings, on the advice of board member Hunter Biden, hired a consulting firm to help them deal with the fallout from a corruption investigation. The consulting firm then allegedly made payments to a lobbying firm linked to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) alleges that a Ukrainian executive kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with Joe and Hunter Biden for “insurance.”
• The FBI declined to produce the document at first, prompting a congressional subpoena.
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called the allegations “deeply troubling.”