IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler corroborated an alleged bribe outlined in an FBI FD-1023 informant file that claims a Burisma Holdings executive bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden each with $5 million, records recently released by the House Ways and Means Committee show.
“RHB [Robert Hunter Biden] references $5 million in total from Burisma (which was referenced in the beginning of the board agreement), which I believe coincides with information on the FBI Form FD1023,” Ziegler wrote in an August affidavit.
The House Ways and Means Committee publicly disclosed the affidavit on September 28 after the committee voted to approve the release of a second tranche of documents from IRS whistleblowers.
Ziegler’s affidavit referenced an email from Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s best friend in business, to the president’s son obtained “by the investigative team via an Electronic Search Warrant served on Google related to RHB’s Apple email account.” The email notes the “need to determine what we consider expenses to be deducted from potential Burisma ‘pay’ before we determine true split # with Alex. (i.e. 5-.75/3= 1.42M apiece).”
Ziegler told House investigators the email “was believed to be RHB’s laying out of the plan related to the Burisma board income he and Archer were about to receive.”
House investigators disclosed an IRS slide, along with the email, that indicates the “5” is a reference to the $5 million that Burisma would pay. Of the $5 million, Archer suggested subtracting $750,000 for expenses. The remaining $4.25 million Archer suggested the partners split between Hunter, Archer, and “Alex” [redacted last name], which would leave each partner with $1.42 million.
T17 Exhibit 4A Email Regarding Burisma Setup 05.07.2014 WMRedacted by Breitbart News on Scribd
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) publicly released the FBI informant file in July, alleging Joe Biden and Hunter Biden each received $5 million from Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma, after Joe Biden threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine until President Petro Poroshenko fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma.
Burisma was under suspicion of money laundering and public corruption in 2015. Prosecutor Victor Shokin investigated the case before his termination which potentially was the result of pressure applied by then-Vice President Joe Biden. Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid from Ukraine if the Ukrainian government did not fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma. In exchange, the informant file alleges Joe Biden and Hunter Biden received $5 million each in small sums through separate bank accounts.
Joe Biden bragged about the firing during a 2018 appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations. “I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in’ … I think it was about six hours,” Biden told the audience. “I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.”
The FD-1023 file notes that “Zlochevsky [said] he did not send any funds directly to the ‘Big Guy’ (which CHS understood was a reference to Joe Biden).” The file also said Zlochevsky claimed “it would take them (Investigators) 10 years to find the records (i.e., illicit payments to Joe Biden):”
Zlochevsky also laughed at CHS’s number of $50,000 (not because of the small amount, but because the number contained a “5” and said that “it costs (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden”). CHS [confidential human source] noted that at this time, it was unclear to CHS whether these alleged payments were already made.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry in September into Joe Biden. The inquiry further empowered the House Oversight Committee to subpoena Hunter and James Biden’s personal and business bank transactions. The bank records could further link Joe Biden to his family’s foreign deals.
“He [Joe Biden] requested it, he and Hunter Biden requested $5 million each,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told Breitbart News after reviewing the FBI informant file in June. “‘Pay me $5 million, pay my father $5 million, and we will take care of your problems for you.'”
When a reporter questioned Joe Biden in June about the alleged $5 million payment, he jokingly responded, “Where’s the money?”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
