The FBI reportedly told U.S. Prosecutor David Weiss the bureau partially corroborated the claims that Burisma Holdings founder Mykola Zlochevsky bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden with $5 million each.
The Pittsburgh FBI field office corroborated several details contained in the FBI informant record as a part of the intake process that former Attorney General William Barr established, a source with knowledge of the process told the Federalist.
The FBI’s Pittsburgh office was the clearinghouse for the information originating from Ukraine to root out “any potential disinformation.”
The Pittsburgh FBI office reportedly told Weiss about their corroborated facts stemming from the informant’s FD-1023 form, including the travel records the FBI informant detailed in the form and various times the informant claimed to visit cities in Ukraine, England, and Austria to gather the intelligence.
The source also told the Federalist the FBI informant’s handler corroborated the informant’s claim of meeting with Oleksandr (a.k.a. Alexander) Ostapenko, a man who allegedly witnessed conversations between Zlochevsky and the FBI informant. Ostapenko “introduced” the informant to Zlochevsky and “works in some office for the administration of [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelensky,” the form stays.
Ukrainian businessman and founder of the Burisma Holdings company Mykola Zlochevsky during a media conference in Kiev, Ukraine, March 3, 2012. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Weiss was also aware that the FBI informant had a scheduled meeting with Ostapenko, according to the source. The upcoming meeting was reportedly corroborated by one of the visits the informant claimed in the form to have conducted with Ostapenko.
Because the FBI’s Pittsburgh office was only the clearinghouse for the information originating from Ukraine, the Pittsburgh office reportedly lacked Weiss’ authority of subpoena power to fully confirm the FBI informant’s report.
It appears Weiss never followed up on the informant’s report in his investigation of Hunter and Joe Biden, although he admitted in July the FBI informant form alleging the Biden family bribes is part of an ongoing investigation.
United States Attorney David C. Weiss. (Screen shot/CBS News)
IRS whistleblowers claim the Justice Department politically interfered in the investigation. In June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two tax charges and one gun charge.
The whistleblowers allege Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf refused to allow investigators to ask about Joe Biden being “the big guy.” Wolf also allegedly cautioned the investigation team from searching Joe Biden’s guest house in Delaware for evidence against Hunter Biden because of “optics.”
Moreover, Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations were a part of the Hunter Biden criminal probe, warranting a special counsel, IRS Agent whistleblowers testified Wednesday. “We are not a part of the investigation anymore,” IRS Agent Joseph Ziegler told lawmakers. “That’s our whole point of a special counsel.”
“I still view that a special counsel for this case would have cut through the toughest problems that continue to make problems for this case,” Ziegler added.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
