President Biden continues to be challenged by senior congressional Republicans and several outlets on allegations that, when he was vice president, Biden accepted a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian energy company that employed his son.
“Why did the Ukraine, the FBI informant file refer to you as the ‘big guy?'” Biden was asked by a New York Post reporter on Thursday, to which the president responded: “Why’d you ask such a dumb question?”
Earlier this week, Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, alleged in a floor speech that there exist 17 audio recordings created by an executive at Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company, who has claimed a payment was made to the president, along with another for the same amount to Hunter Biden. Grassley said the recordings had been kept as an “insurance policy.”
House Oversight chairman Jim Comer (R., Ky.) has led the investigation into these allegations in the lower chamber. Comer threatened to hold FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt if committee members were not allowed to view an FBI informant report, known as an FD-1023 form, detailing the alleged bribery scheme. Last week, the FBI relented and allowed Oversight committee members to view the document.
Both sides have accused the other of obfuscation. Biden has consistently denied wrongdoing and dismissed the allegations as a stunt, saying last week: “Where’s the money?… It’s a bunch of malarkey.”
Emails found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which became an issue in the 2016 election, purportedly show, that, when Biden was vice president, he was introduced to an executive at Burisma after his son joined the firm’s board. The president was reportedly referred to as “big guy” in one of the emails.
U.S. investigators looked into the company but found nothing worth publically pursuing.
Republican frontrunner Donald Trump made reference to the bribery allegations during his post-arraignment speech, in which he slammed special prosecutor Jack Smith, who has indicted him in a classified-documents probe.
Trump vowed to appoint a “real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden. And the entire Biden crime family.”