James Comer says allegations of 'substantial bribe' to VP Biden from 'business person from Ukraine' go back to 2017

On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer revealed that allegations suggesting President Biden took part in a $5 million bribery scheme during his time as vice president involve Ukraine, with these allegations first being presented to the FBI in 2017 by a reliable and highly-paid informant.

Comer made the revelation to Just The News a day after he reviewed the FBI FD-1023 form, which records reporting from informants, outlining Biden’s alleged bribing by a foreign national, and two days before Comer plans to hold a vote to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress after failing to comply with a subpoena.

Comer said the version he was able to review of the document by Wray was about 10 percent redacted, and made it clear that the allegations were first raised to the FBI in 2017.

“Yes, it is Ukraine,” Comer told Just the News when asked what country was involved in the alleged bribery. “This form 1023 involves a business person from Ukraine, who allegedly sent a bribe, a substantial bribe to then Vice President Joe Biden.”

When asked if the allegation involved Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, founder of the Burisma Holdings energy firm that hired Hunter Biden for a board and consulting job in 2014 when his father was vice president, Comer said, “I probably better punt on that question. The name was redacted."

Comer said the markings on the document he was shown made it clear that the informant first provided the allegations to the FBI in 2017, and then again once more before a third time in the June 2020 informant report.

“This first started in 2017,” he said, citing footnotes in the informant report he reviewed that listed two previous reports. “There are two notes, or footnotes, whatever you want to call them. They listed them as notes. I will say footnotes for better explanation, that reference 2017. And it was either 2018 or 2019. So this wasn't the first time that the informant had mentioned a bribery scheme pertaining to Joe Biden to the FBI.

Comer’s revelation came the same day as Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed that the informant was paid $200,000 by the FBI over several years.

“Partisan media, most likely in conjunction with the Biden FBI, have misleadingly reported the 1023 is from a tranche of information provided by Rudy Giuliani. News reports last week dispel that notion and make clear the 1023 information that we request is independent of Giuliani,” Grassley stated in a speech.

“Those news reports also show that the source who formed the basis of the 1023 is a long-serving FBI source. The source reportedly received numerous validations from the FBI. The source reportedly operated even during the Obama administration. Based on what I’ve been told about yesterday’s meeting, the FBI didn’t contradict these findings.

“Today, I can say that based upon unclassified and legally protected whistleblower disclosures the FBI source in the 1023 has been paid at least two-hundred thousand dollars by the FBI since the source was opened and operational,” he added. “High dollar payments obviously mean the FBI believes the source to be credible and reputable.”

Comer said the core allegation is a Ukrainian businessman paid $5 million to the Biden family in exchange for US policy decision that Joe Biden could impact.

The chairman noted that his investigators have yet to find any money directly linked to the current president, but added that they are "following the money" through LLCs and bank accounts, and have begun searching for off-shore accounts.

"When you first read about it, it's hard to believe," he said. "It's hard to believe that a vice president of the United States would try to take a bribe from a foreign national, in a company in a country that's, at the time not noted for anything other than a lot of corruption, and then asked that the money be sent through shell companies and various banks to launder it to where no one would know about it."