Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling said Republican lawmakers are jeopardizing national security after releasing a redacted version of the FD-1023 document that accuses President Joe Biden of conspiring with a Ukrainian gas company.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley on Thursday published the document, which includes information from an unknown informant who spoke with the FBI in June 2020 that accused Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, of each receiving a $5 million bribe from an executive at gas company Burisma. The document has been the center of accusations from Grassley and GOP members of the House Oversight Committee who accuse Biden of accepting the bribery scheme during his time as vice president.
In response, the White House released a statement urging news organization to hold Republicans a "to basic level of factual accountability" over the accusations, adding that the claims against Biden and his family members have been "debunked for years."
"These claims have reportedly been scrutinized by the Trump Justice Department, a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney, and a full impeachment trial of the former President that center on these very issues, and over and over again, they have been found to lack credibility," read the statement, which was shared with Newsweek by White House spokesperson Ian Sams.
Hertling, who served as commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe, also criticized House Oversight Chair James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, who Hertling said doesn't "give a damn about security."
"After providing information that contained classified information that - if released - could harm people and programs ... Members of [Comer's] 'oversight' Committee releases it anyway," Hertling wrote in a tweet. "How long will this continue with these people who don't give a damn about security?"
Biden and his son are accused of accepting bribes from Mykola Zlochevsky, a former Ukrainian elected official and current owner of Burisma, in exchange for pushing the government to fire former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Shokin was at one time investigating Burisma over alleged corruption, but never sought prosecution.
According to the document released Thursday, Zlochevsky met with an FBI informant in 2016, where it was suggested that Burisma pay an attorney $50,000 to litigate the matter with Shokin. Zlochevsky reportedly responded, "It costs $5 [million] to pay one Biden, and $5 [million] to another Biden."
In a statement to Newsweek Thursday, a spokesperson for Grassley snapped back at the White House's claim that the bribery accusations have already been "debunked."
"This document was created by the FBI, based on information provided by a long-serving and trusted FBI informant who has been used as a source in multiple previous investigations and has been paid at least $200,000 by the FBI," read the statement.
"What remains to be seen is what the FBI and DOJ did with this information," the spokesperson continued. "Did they follow up on it, or sweep it under the rug? The American people have a right to know, and Congress will hold them accountable."
The Biden administration has also been accused by House Republicans of giving Hunter Biden a "sweetheart deal" at the end of a years-long investigation of his taxes. Comer on Thursday said in a statement that the released FBI document regarding the alleged bribery scheme shows a pattern within the Biden family.
"In the FBI's record, the Burisma executive claims that he didn't pay the 'big guy' directly but that he used several bank accounts to conceal the money," Comer said in the statement. "That sounds an awful lot like how the Bidens conduct business: using multiple bank accounts to hide the source and total amount of the money."
Newsweek has previously reached out to Comer, along with the FBI and Department of Justice, for comment.
Update 07/20/23, 8:03 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from Grassley's office.
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Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more
