Burisma Founder Pours Cold Water on Biden Bribery Claims in Doc Released by Raskin

The founder of a Ukrainian energy company at the heart of a bribery allegation against President Joe Biden and his family said in 2019 that the firm never had any contact with the former vice president, according to a document released by Democrats Thursday.

Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, made the statements in a document provided to the House during the first impeachment investigation of former President Donald Trump. In the document, Zlochevsky pours cold water on the idea that then-Vice President Biden assisted the company in any way.

“No one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement,” Zlochevsky said in the transcript.

This is the first time the full transcript has been released publicly, according to Raskin's office.

The claims from Zlochevsky in the document appear to undermine allegations that Biden lobbied for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company in exchange for money.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, highlighted Zlochevsky’s claims in a Thursday letter to Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the panel’s chair. 

“Mr. Zlochevsky’s statements are just one of the many that have debunked the corruption allegations against President Biden that were first leveled by Rudy Giuliani and have been reviewed by former President Trump’s own Justice Department,” Raskin said in the letter.

Raskin said the document was provided to Congress by Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Guiliani, who was serving as Trump’s personal lawyer, during the impeachment investigation. The document is a back and forth exchange between Guiliani’s camp and Zlochevsky, Raskin said in the letter.

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), threading a two-pronged GOP attack against the Bidens and federal law enforcement, accused Raskin of "intentionally lying about the FBI's Biden bribery record."

"Ranking Member Raskin is rapidly losing credibility as he continues to aid and abet the Biden family coverup," Comer said.

Republicans on Wednesday doubled down on their promises to investigate all things Biden, including the president's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Merrick Garland.

"Someone has lied here," McCarthy said Thursday on Fox News' "Hannity" show. "If we find that Garland has lied to Congress, we will start impeachment proceedings.”

Comer cited the nearly decade-old allegation that President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, were involved in a bribery scheme involving the Ukrainian energy holdings company Burisma, which employed the younger Biden.

The complaint was lodged to the FBI through a paid human informant, who relayed secondhand information that claimed the Bidens were paid to lobby for the firing of a Ukrainian investigator looking into the energy firm. Raskin said in the letter that panel Republicans "appear to have identified" Zlochevsky "as the source of the allegations” for the FBI’s informant.

Hunter Biden was named to the board of Burisma in 2014 and was paid up to $83,000 a month, despite having no background in the energy industry. The arrangement was criticized by the State Department at the time, given his father was serving as the Obama administration’s point person for Ukraine.

Viktor Shokin, the former prosecutor general of Ukraine who the Bidens were allegedly paid to lobby for the firing of, was fired by the Ukrainian parliament in 2016. He was widely viewed as corrupt by western officials, and no evidence has surfaced that Biden acted at the behest of his son when demanding Shokin’s firing.

While Republicans have pointed to the allegations as evidence of wrongdoing by the president, the claims are unverified. Lawmakers on the Oversight Committee earlier this month viewed the document memorializing the complaint to the FBI — the document did not say that Biden received payment in the alleged scheme, a source with direct knowledge of the meeting said.

The focus on the investigation reached a fever pitch when Hunter Biden reached a plea deal on tax and gun charges with federal prosecutors in Delaware. Republicans argued the agreement was a “sweetheart” deal for the president’s son, invigorating congressional investigators to step up their probe.

Republicans have argued that the bribery allegations were forwarded to authorities in Delaware, where they are now part of an ongoing investigation. But law enforcement has never said that the allegations are being investigated in Delaware, where Hunter Biden reached his plea deal on tax and gun charges.

Federal law enforcement told lawmakers that the bribery allegations were vetted by the Department of Justice, including interviews with the FBI source and reviews of suspicious activity reports submitted by banks, and declined to investigate the allegations further, according to a source with direct knowledge of the meeting.

Raskin asked FBI Director Christopher Wray in a letter earlier this month to provide in writing what agency officials told him and Comer in a closed-door briefing, including clarification that Biden is not under investigation in the bribery scheme.

Comer requested all suspicious activity reports related to Burisma and its associates, including Zolchevsky, from the Treasury Department on Thursday. 

The letter from Raskin is one of the most aggressive steps that Democrats have taken to directly counter Republican claims and absolve the Bidens of wrongdoing.

White House officials and their allies in Congress see the efforts by Republicans as a politically motivated attack on Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential campaign. 

Biden’s allies say Comer and Republican members of the Oversight Committee are employing a shoot first-aim later approach to the president and his family. They see it as a way for House Republicans to feed their base while taking time and energy away from bipartisan work.

Bill Barr, the former attorney general in the Trump administration, has said the allegation was turned over to Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who last week announced a misdemeanor plea agreement with Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges. Weiss described the investigation as “ongoing.”

Federal law enforcement told lawmakers that the bribery allegations were vetted by the Department of Justice, including interviews with the FBI source and reviews of suspicious activity reports submitted by banks, and declined to investigate the allegations further, according to a source with direct knowledge of the meeting.