This week, we learned that there are reportedly multiple recordings of Joe Biden accepting a $5 million bribe while he was vice president from Mykola Zlochevsky, co-founder of Burisma Holdings — a detail that the FBI deliberately tried to hide from Congress, no less.
Despite the efforts to protect Biden, the word is out, and Biden was unable to avoid reporters asking him about the recordings.
On Tuesday, when Biden was leaving the White House East Room after an event, New York Post reporter Steven Nelson questioned him about the alleged audio recordings
“Are there tapes that you accepted bribes, President Biden? Is that true?” Nelson asked as Biden walked by. He clearly heard the question, stopped, and turned with a grin and a chuckle, but said nothing, before turning back and continuing on his way.
President Biden turned and grinned — without saying a word — tonight when I asked about @ChuckGrassley saying alleged Ukrainian bribe-giver claims to have tapes https://t.co/R2mhPKUt3Y pic.twitter.com/Z8JI7pENzq
— Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) June 13, 2023
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed the alleged existence of the recordings on Monday in a speech on the Senate floor.
“The foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recording[s] of his conversation with them,” Grassley said. “17 such recordings. […] 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden […] two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden. These recording[s] were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot.”
That Biden stopped at all in response to the question was very telling, but his laughing it off was actually quite insulting. This isn’t a situation that Biden can just laugh off and pretend doesn’t exist. A longtime FBI informant revealed the existence of these recordings to the FBI; it is highly unlikely that this informant was making this up. The FBI knew of these recordings from the FD-1023 report that it first refused to provide to the House Oversight Committee.
It wasn’t until after the House Oversight Committee threatened FBI Director Wray with contempt that the bureau finally showed the document to the committee, with the mention of the recordings redacted. When you consider the facts, it’s easy to conclude that the recordings do exist and that the FBI knows they exist.
This won’t be the last time Biden will face questions about the recordings. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about it on Tuesday and avoided the question.
‘Senator Chuck Grassley made some statements yesterday on the Senate floor, saying that this foreign national on the FBI 1023 form apparently has 15 recorded conversations with Hunter Biden and claims to have two with the President,” a reporter asked. “Is there — is the White House aware of any recordings in which the President might be on tape speaking to a Burisma executive?”
“So the President spoke to this,” Jean-Pierre claimed. “I think he was shouted a question about this at the Thursday press conference. And I’m just going to quote him and say, ‘It’s malarkey.'”
There are two problems with this. For one thing, the existence of the recordings was first made public on Monday, so she was actually referring to a comment Biden made last week, which preceded the latest bombshell. The second problem is that, like Biden, Jean-Pierre didn’t even suggest that there couldn’t possibly be recordings because they never took place. She merely deflected the question by referring to an out-of-date comment.
Biden can’t hide from this scandal forever… especially if those recordings are released.
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