As RedState reported, Sen. Chuck Grassley has released the infamous FD-1023 form which provides evidence that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden received bribes from Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky.
In the form is a claim that 17 different recordings exist discussing the arrangements, including two that include Joe Biden himself. Also revealed, as RedState Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar detailed, is that Burisma’s then CFO Vadim Pojarskii stated that they “hired” Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
READ MORE: Here’s What We’ve Learned From the Newly-Released FD-1023 About the Biden Bribery Scheme
More direct references to Joe Biden include Zlochevsky stating “Don’t worry Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad” when pressed on whether the then-ongoing investigation into Burisma would harm the company’s IPO. Who was heading up that investigation? That would be Viktor Shokin. Who would later brag about getting Shokin fired by withholding aid to Ukraine? That would be Joe Biden.
The level of corruption shown in that form is simply astonishing. We are talking about the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. What makes it worse, though, is that the FBI worked to cover all this up. Not only did they not conduct a thorough investigation of what the confidential human source shared with his handler, but the bureau appears to have done everything it could to protect the Bidens in the aftermath.
That’s what looking at the FD-1023 form from a different angle shows. For example, the FBI redacted one embarrassing mention of Hunter Biden when Congress requested to view the document.
There are several other parts of the FD-1023 that the FBI sought to hide from Congress. The reason that’s so egregious is that redactions are only supposed to happen if necessary. The usual excuse is that they are there to protect sources and methods or to stop the exposing of national security information. What sources and methods were being protected when the FBI redacted a mention of Hunter Biden as not being as smart as a dog? What sources and methods were being protected by redacting the mention of the recordings and documents attesting to the bribes?
The answer is obviously none. So why redact it? Occam’s razor says it was redacted because it provided evidence of the fact that Hunter Biden had no legitimate reason to be receiving massive payments from Burisma. The unredacted FD-1023 makes it clear that the Ukrainian oligarchs in question were paying out to gain protection from Joe Biden and to get Shokin fired. That is a massive admission, and the fact that the FBI worked so hard to hide that from Congress and the American people is extremely telling.
As Jennifer Van Laar noted in her write-up, FBI Dir. Christopher Wray actually tried to claim in May that the FD-1023 didn’t even exist. When it became clear that sources had proven to GOP congressional members that it did exist, Wray then tried to over-redact the form and keep Congress from obtaining copies of it despite it being unclassified. Eventually, a subpoena led to the breakthrough we are now experiencing.
What’s the FBI going to do now? Will they hide behind the “ongoing investigation” trope after previously claiming the FD-1023 didn’t even exist? I just don’t see how the bureau recovers from this in the realm of public opinion. You can only tell so many lies (some by omission) before painting yourself into a corner. That’s where Wray is right now. He needs to quickly decide whether he wants to continue to protect the Bidens or if he wants to save his agency in the eyes of Americans.