WASHINGTON — President Biden lashed out Thursday when asked why he’s called the “big guy” in an FBI informant file accusing him of accepting a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian businessman while vice president.
“Why did the Ukraine FBI informant file refer to you as the ‘big guy’, President Biden? Why is that term continuously applied?” The Post asked Biden at an event focused on reducing corporate junk fees.
“Why do you ask such a dumb question?” the 80-year-old president snapped.
Biden was referred to as the “big guy” in the June 2020 informant file, months before The Post reported that first son Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop contained a May 2017 email that said the “big guy” was due a 10% cut in a business deal with CEFC China Energy.
Two Hunter Biden business partners in the CEFC deal — Tony Bobulinski and James Gilliar — have separately identified Joe Biden as the “big guy.” Hunter and James Biden received $4.8 million from the CEFC partnership, according to a Washington Post review of laptop documents.
The alleged Ukraine bribe deals with the gas company Burisma Holdings, according to members of Congress who read the file.
The firm hired Hunter Biden to join its board in April 2014 as then-Vice President Biden took over the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy. The then-second son was paid up to $1 million per year despite no relevant industry experience.
The informant file alleges that Joe and Hunter Biden were each paid $5 million to assist the interests of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, according to lawmakers who read it.
Biden attempted to laugh off the bribery allegation last week.
“Where’s the money?” Biden told The Post at the time, adding: “I’m joking. It’s a bunch of malarkey.”
House Republicans who read the informant file said last week said that it describes how the elder Biden allegedly pushed for the ouster of Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin, who was fired in 2016, in return for payment. The informant file also makes reference to Burisma seeking to partner with or buy a US energy business, the lawmakers said.
Former White House stenographer Mike McCormick says Joe Biden pushed US support for Ukraine’s natural gas industry during a trip to Kyiv just days after Hunter quietly joined Burisma.
House Democrats impeached then-President Donald Trump in 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family and argued at the time that US allies also wanted Shokin to lose his job over his own corruption.
Hunter Biden has been under investigation for about five years by the US attorney’s office in Delaware for tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering and lying about his drug use on a gun-purchase form.
The House Oversight Committee has led efforts to determine Joe Biden’s role in his family’s overseas dealings and recently identified nine relatives who allegedly received foreign income from shady figures in China and Romania.
Two IRS whistleblowers recently testified to the House Ways and Means Committee to outline an alleged coverup in the Hunter Biden case, including “preferential treatment” and alleged false testimony to Congress by Attorney General Merrick Garland about Delaware US Attorney David Weiss’s ability to independently bring charges.
Hunter wrote in emails retrieved from his laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to his father.
President Biden denies ever discussing business with his son Hunter or brother James Biden— even though evidence has emerged that he interacted with their associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.