FBI document alleges President Biden part of $5M bribery scheme

Fox News has published new details about the confidential document House Republicans are looking at and its implications for President Biden. According to Fox News, the FBI document alleges that Biden was paid $5 million by an executive of the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, where his son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board. 

The majority of outlets reporting the allegations are right-leaning. Straight Arrow News gives you a more complete picture by showing you how a story is being covered on our Media Miss page. 

Sources told Fox that, according to the June 2020 document in question, the Burisma executive told a confidential source in 2015 and 2016 that the company was trying obtain U.S. oil rights and contracts. According to the document, the executive reportedly said he or she had to pay then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter $5 million dollars apiece to help gain access to the U.S. oil market. The alleged transaction reportedly occurred during an investigation into Burisma by Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. 

Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine’s government to fire Shokin. 

In 2018, Biden admitted he had threatened to withhold $1 billion in critical U.S. aid to Ukraine if Shokin was not fired. Biden allies say the firing was a policy decision, not a personal one.

Former President Donald Trump has said the firing of Shokin was one of the reasons he pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings in Ukraine. 

The Burisma executive reportedly told the informant he paid the Bidens through so many different bank accounts, that it would take investigators at least “10 years” to unravel the money trail. 

The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the FBI for the document, leading to a battle between the committee and the bureau. House Republicans threatened to hold FBI Director Wray in contempt of Congress until the FBI allowed all committee members to view the document behind closed doors.

On June 8, President Biden called the allegations “a bunch of malarkey”. Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation since 2018 for tax affairs involving reported suspicious foreign transactions.