Burisma executives thought Hunter Biden was “stupid” but felt they had to keep paying him in order to continue political protection from his father, Joe Biden, an FBI confidential source reported to the bureau in 2020.

The unverified allegations were captured on an FBI form that has been the source of fierce debate in Washington in recent months. Republicans released the four-page document Thursday.

The source, whose identity was redacted, said Burisma officials admitted they hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” In a subsequent meeting, the officials expressed confidence the Bidens would clear obstacles to Burisma getting listed on an American stock exchange.

“Don’t worry, Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad,” one executive said, according to the FBI’s summary of the source’s information.

The source also said one of the Burisma figures had 17 recordings involving the Bidens. Two included President Biden himself, the source said.

The document, known as an FD-1023, is the form the FBI uses to collect raw, unverified information from human sources. Republicans had obtained closed-door access but demanded the administration make the document public.

After that didn’t happen, Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican and a champion of whistleblowers, released the FBI document with minimal redactions, saying he obtained it through legal means.

He said it implicates the president in a “criminal bribery scheme.”

“While the FBI sought to obfuscate and redact, the American people can now read this document for themselves, without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats, thanks to brave and heroic whistleblowers,” Mr. Grassley said. “What did the Justice Department and FBI do with the detailed information in the document? And why have they tried to conceal it from Congress and the American people for so long?”

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, joined him in releasing the FBI document.

Mr. Comer said the source’s information “tracks closely with the evidence uncovered” by his committee.

The document is dated June 30, 2020, and is based on conversations with the source on June 26 and June 29.

Mr. Grassley released it a day after two IRS agents testified in public about their investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax evasion, describing tantalizing details that suggested his father’s involvement.

The agents said they were derailed from pursuing those leads.

The agents did describe the business ties Hunter Biden built, saying that from 2014 to 2019 he and his associates collected more than $17 million from a handful of foreign firms in Ukraine, China and Romania.

Republicans said Hunter Biden offered those firms nothing other than his connections to his father.

The FD-1023 form released Thursday adds heft to that sentiment.

In one exchange the source recalled a Burisma figure saying: “It cost 5 (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden.” It wasn’t clear whether that referred to payments already made.

The source challenged the need for Hunter Biden, and one Burisma executive agreed that he “was stupid,” saying his dog was smarter than the younger Biden. But the executive said they had to keep Hunter Biden on Burisma’s board “so everything will be okay.”

The source asked whether it was Hunter Biden or his father who told them to retain the son and, according to the report, the executive replied: “They both did.”

In a later conversation, though, a Burisma executive told the source he had never sent payment to the “big guy.”

The FBI, in the document, made clear the source wasn’t validating the information and didn’t know the executives well enough to gauge the veracity of the claims.

The source did say that in post-Soviet countries such as Ukraine it was standard to have budget line items to pay bribes, and the source said it also was common to make covert recordings of business interactions.

The IRS agents said they were not aware of the FBI’s information when they were pursuing the case against Hunter Biden.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.