Top House Oversight Democrat releases transcript disputing Biden bribery allegations
by Reese Gorman, Congressional Reporter |
June 29, 2023 01:49 PM
The Ukrainian oligarch at the center of the alleged bribery scandal involving Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden claimed in a 2019 interview he never interacted with the former vice president, according to newly released transcripts from House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
The transcripts were from an interview with Mykola Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company in which Hunter Biden sat on the board. In the transcripts, Zlochevsky told an associate of Rudy Giuliani, “No one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement.”
At the time of the interview with Zlochevsky in 2019, Giuliani was reportedly seeking dirt on the Bidens on behalf of then-President Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 election.
While the meetings between Zlochevsky and Giuliani associates have been reported in the past, this is the first time the transcripts have been released to the public. They were provided to Congress by Lev Parnas, an associate of Giuliani, Raskin said.
Zlochevsky’s statement in the transcript contradicts what Oversight Republicans said is in an unverified FBI-generated FD-1023 tip sheet from a paid FBI informant. According to people who have viewed the document, it alleges that Zlochevsky paid $5 million to both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden to pressure the Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin, a Ukrainian prosecutor who was allegedly investigating Burisma.
In January 2018, Joe Biden boasted that he ordered the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin or the White House would renege on a commitment to provide aid.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/house-oversight-raskin-interview-biden-bribery-scandal
