A confidential human source (CHS) who previously worked with the FBI supplied the bribery allegations surrounding President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, a former prosecutor who vetted the allegations confirmed to the House Judiciary Committee.
Former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady testified to the House Judiciary Committee in October about the origins of the FBI FD-1023 document containing allegations that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden received $5 million each from Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the Daily Caller. (RELATED: FBI Allegedly Covered Up Biden Family Accusations By Calling Them ‘Foreign Disinformation,’ Sen Grassley Finds)
Here is the full letter from Sen. Grassley with explosive allegations from protected whistleblowers detailing how the FBI attempted to shut down investigative activity into the Biden family. These details represent a massive FBI & DOJ coverup @DailyCaller https://t.co/wDwNfFQaUB pic.twitter.com/1I0vQ0LWAn
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) October 26, 2023
“Well, again, respecting the privileges that attach to this, during the course of our investigation, we were made aware of a confidential human source who — and because the 1023 is public, I can speak to that,” Brady said, according to the transcript.
Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley released the full FD-1023 document in July after he received a copy of it from DOJ whistleblowers.
“A confidential human source in a previous 1023 had identified an interaction with a Ukrainian national who discussed — it wasn’t the focus of that 1023 from several years prior but had made reference to Hunter Biden serving on the board of Burisma,” Brady continued. (RELATED: FBI Received ‘Criminal Information’ On Joe And Hunter Biden From Over 40 Confidential Sources, Sen Grassley Finds)
“At my direction, we asked the FBI to re-interview the CHS. And, again, in the previous 1023, it wasn’t really the focus of the information that was being provided to the FBI. It was just one sentence. And so we said, ‘We need to understand what this is or is not, so can you please re-interview him or her,’ which they did, and that then resulted in the January 2020, 1023,” he said.
Brady went on to discuss the sensitivity of the bribery allegations and the FBI’s alleged reluctance to pursue them because of Hunter Biden’s role as a board member of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, a company founded by Zlochevsky.
Hunter Biden made more than $80,000 per month from his position on Burisma’s board, according to bank records released in August by the House Oversight Committee, despite his lack of experience in the energy industry and Ukraine.
“Yeah, so we identified the previous 1023 probably at the beginning of June and then went back and forth with the FBI about reaching back out to the CHS and doing a full interview on the line referencing Hunter Biden and Burisma. But it took a while,” Brady testified.
“I think there was concern by the FBI about the sensitive nature of both the information and also the fact that this was an important confidential human source who had provided information to them in the past, that had been used in other investigations. So it was an important CHS to them,” he added.
“Certainly anything relating to Ukraine, Ukrainian nationals that intersected with Hunter Biden and his role serving on the Burisma board was sensitive and certainly in 2020, months before an election cycle when different policies kick in for the Department and for the FBI,” Brady said.
Brady was tasked with vetting the FD-1023 allegations because of his role in handling Ukraine-related information. He said he found the bribery allegations credible enough to warrant further investigation.
“What we were able to identify, we found that it was consistent. And so we felt that there were sufficient indicia of credibility in this 1023 to pass it on to an office that had a predicated grand jury investigation,” Brady said. He could not discuss the details of how his office vetted the allegations contained in the FD-1023 form.
Sen. Grassley also found the Biden bribery allegations were provided to the FBI by a credible confidential human source who had worked with the Bureau in the past.
“Accordingly, claims that the Biden family 1023 was part of the information provided by [Rudy] Giuliani are incorrect. The information in the Biden family 1023 was obtained separate from Giuliani from a long-standing, high-paid FBI CHS who’s been used in other investigative matters by the FBI, as the Zlochevsky case illustrates,” Grassley wrote in a Tuesday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
READ THE LETTER:
Giuliani had provided authorities with information related to suspected Ukrainian corruption, but he did not supply the Biden bribery allegations, Brady confirmed.
“We did, however, make it clear that some of the information including this 1023 did not come from Mr.Giuliani,” Brady said, referring to his communications with the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding the Biden bribery allegations.
“[T]hat was already communicated to their [Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’] office, that the 1023 was from a credible CHS that had a history with the FBI, and that it was not derived from any of the information from Mr. Giuliani,” he added.
Joe Biden dismissed the bribery allegations as “malarkey” in June before Grassley released the FD-1023 form. Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer, testified in July that Joe Biden spoke with his son’s foreign business associates on roughly 20 occasions, and also said the Biden family “brand” protected Burisma.
Archer testified about a spring 2015 dinner then-Vice President Biden attended alongside Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi. An email on Hunter Biden’s laptop confirms Pozharskyi met Joe Biden in April 2015.
The New York Times reported in December 2020 that the information Giuliani provided to Brady and the FBI sparked an investigation by Brady into Hunter Biden, citing supposed interviews with anonymous officials. The piece does not mention the confidential human source or the FBI FD-1023 containing the bribery allegations.
Garland appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss special counsel in August to continue the ongoing DOJ investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and firearms possession.
Weiss became special counsel after Hunter Biden’s guilty plea agreement collapsed and two IRS whistleblowers accused the DOJ of giving the first son special treatment under Weiss’ watch.
The FBI previously referred the Daily Caller to special counsel Weiss and declined to comment on the matter.
Henry Rodgers contributed to this report.