House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is once again tossing out wild allegations about President Joe Biden’s so-called “bribery scheme” with Ukrainian oligarchs, this time insinuating that President Volodymyr Zelensky himself “knows” about these alleged kickbacks.
On top of that, Comer also suggested that Biden’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia is due to his son Hunter’s previous work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, adding that there’s “no real oversight” nor “good accounting” of the military aid given to the Ukrainian president.
As proof that the president received millions of dollars in foreign bribes, Comer pointed to a 2020 FBI interview with an informant—despite the fact that House Democrats recently unveiled a document that severely undercuts the informant’s assertions.
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During a Monday night appearance on Fox News, the Kentucky lawmaker was asked by host Rachel Campos-Duffy whether Republicans’ thus-far unfounded claims that the president is “compromised” by influence-peddling by foreign nationals is related to the Ukraine war.
“This obviously is the biggest political scandal in modern history as far as I’m concerned, we have a sitting president who is you know compromised by our most dangerous enemies, but the Biden family also took money from Ukraine,” Campos-Duffy declared. “My question to you is in what way do you think that part of the scandal could be influencing the Ukraine war and the amount of tax dollars that our country is sending to that country?”
While claiming to be “really concerned” about the “blank check that we’re giving Ukraine right now,” Comer, who has previously called Ukraine an “adversary,” then implied Zelensky was essentially extorting Biden for military aid by using Burisma as leverage against the president.
“Now I support Ukraine against Russia, I will publicly say that, but I am concerned about the amount of money we’re giving Ukraine and the fact that there’s no real oversight, there’s no inspector general, there’s no good accounting of this money and you wonder, is it because Joe Biden’s scared?” Comer wondered. “I mean he has a lot of explaining to do about this Burisma deal.”
Despite the congressman’s claims, House Republicans themselves have said that there has been “robust oversight of U.S. assistance” to Ukraine. And earlier this year, a GOP-led hearing on support to Ukraine found no evidence so far that any aid had been misused.
“This Burisma deal is not over,” Comer continued. “And more evidence is coming in every day like what we found with the IRS form 1023 where he was alleged to have taken a bribe over the Burisma stuff, Joe Biden was alleged to have taken a $5 million bribe, so we’re continuing to dig into this, we’re following the money, and hopefully, we’ll have answers to those important questions very soon.”
Campos-Duffy, meanwhile, said she suspects “that Zelensky knows” and maybe “Joe Biden is afraid” of the Ukrainian leader, prompting Comer to agree. “He does,” the oversight chair responded.
The “IRS form 1023” that Comer referenced is actually an FBI document known as an FD-1023, which memorializes conversations the bureau has with confidential informants. (The congressman may have been simultaneously thinking about an IRS whistleblower who alleges Hunter Biden was given preferential treatment in his tax case, a charge the Justice Department denies.)
While an informant told the FBI in 2020 that a high-ranking Burisma executive said he had paid bribes to Joe Biden when he was vice president and that the official even had recordings to prove it, recently surfaced documents appear to refute those allegations. Furthermore, at the time, the Trump DOJ found that the informant’s claims were unsubstantiated)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/us/politics/house-republicans-fbi-wray-contempt.html__;!!LsXw!SqKIQqkUSa1wYoAr5Y1oWtVGURX1uFfXOv4TBru9CMEZ1itvnJ9cM4sayMuLYsm3ea9xa4EHFwKxz7myaN-ekdU4MAGfDfOYD77W$">were unsubstantiated and stopped investigating it)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rep-james-comer-tees-contempt-resolution-fbi-director-biden-probe-rcna88124__;!!LsXw!SqKIQqkUSa1wYoAr5Y1oWtVGURX1uFfXOv4TBru9CMEZ1itvnJ9cM4sayMuLYsm3ea9xa4EHFwKxz7myaN-ekdU4MAGfDYMDZIQ0$">stopped investigating it.
Mykola Zlochevsky, the oligarch that the GOP claims handed Biden a $5-million bribe, said in a 2019 questionnaire that no one from his company had any contact with President Biden during his son’s engagement with Burisma. This document was facilitated by aides of Rudy Giuliani, who was attempting to prove at the time that the Bidens had engaged in corruption in Ukraine. (Then-President Donald Trump’s effort to pressure Zelensky to launch an investigation into Biden resulted in Trump’s first impeachment.)
While repeatedly insisting that bombshell evidence of Biden’s corruptions and crimes will soon emerge, Comer and his GOP colleagues have yet to provide any “hard proof” to back up their accusations. Comer himself has even admitted that the so-called “audio tapes” exposing Biden’s bribes may not exist.
In fact, some at Fox News have stopped buying what Comer is selling, asking him to finally show the “goods” that prove his allegations. However, as The Washington Post’s Phillip Bump wrote last week, the bribery claim has slipped “on more banana peels” as “evidence is accruing that it didn’t” actually happen.
