Newly declassified FBI files released Tuesday by Senator Chuck Grassley reveal previously undisclosed bribery allegations involving former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden that may never have been fully investigated by federal authorities under the 46th president.
The documents show two FBI interviews conducted in 2017 and 2019 with confidential sources who provided detailed information about the Biden family’s alleged involvement in a foreign bribery scheme with Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
The informants alleged that Zlochevsky sought to offer then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko $100 million in “shares and guaranteed profits from gas sales” to stop an “Interpol investigation” into Burisma. According to the FBI sources, Joe and Hunter Biden had “money invested” in the company through a Latvian “shell company.”
The sources also alleged that Joe Biden met directly with Poroshenko “to protect the interests” of his son and Zlochevsky, who was paying Hunter approximately $1 million per year between May 2014 and April 2019 to serve on Burisma’s board of directors.
According to one FBI document known as an FD-1023, drawn from a February 21, 2019 interview with a confidential source, the future president’s effort to protect Burisma’s owner was allegedly supported by members of the U.S. intelligence community.
“[T]wo CIA officers took Zlochevsky into the office of Yuriy Lutsenko, who is the Prosecutor General of Ukraine,” the document states. “The CIA officers allegedly said Zlochevsky is protected by the US and urged Lutsenko to stop the investigation on Zlochevsky and let him back into Ukraine. A deal was made, so Zlochevsky could pay $3 million in damages to get back into Ukraine.”
Lutsenko served as Ukraine’s Prosecutor General from May 2016 to August 2019.
The 2019 FBI files allege that a 2016 reverse merger between Burisma and Texas-based CUB Energy Inc. was part of a lucrative venture involving Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and his business associates Devon Archer and Chris Heinz-Kerry, with Zlochevsky also among the beneficiaries.
The business ties were described as a small part of a larger “money laundering scheme” involving Poroshenko, Victor Medvechuk, an emissary for Russia in Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“There are hundreds of gas and energy companies in Ukraine operating under various names, which allow Russian money to flow through Ukraine,” the 2019 file alleges. “Medvechuk and his cohorts control 97% of them.”
A second FD-1023 document, taken from a June 5, 2017 Skype interview with an informant, states that “JOSEPH BIDEN would ‘take care’ of BURISMA HOLDING issues around the World and POROSHENKO would protect ZLOCHEVSKY.”
The same source indicated that Russia’s foreign intelligence service was engaged in a “direct operation” to “penetrate the American Elite.”
These newly released documents add to previous FBI informant files that Grassley made public in July 2023. That earlier release included a June 2020 FBI informant file alleging that Joe and Hunter Biden each took $5 million bribes from Zlochevsky to “protect” Burisma from a corruption probe brought by Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
Biden, serving as vice president at the time, pressured Ukrainian officials to fire Shokin in December 2015 by threatening to withhold up to $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees. The prosecutor was removed from office months later following a vote by Ukraine’s parliament.
Grassley told FBI Director Kash Patel during Tuesday’s hearing that “to date, the FBI has never answered Congress whether they investigated the text messages, the audio files, and financial records referenced in that 1023.”
The Iowa Republican obtained the files from FBI whistleblowers and released them in collaboration with Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
“In total, we now have three different FBI confidential human sources providing information about the Biden family and potential criminal conduct,” Grassley stated.
“Let me say this for the partisan media: We aren’t saying the allegations are true, we want to know what the FBI did to fully investigate their veracity or lack thereof, and what they concluded,” Grassley said. “Let’s put this matter to rest, one way or the other.”
The 2020 FBI informant who made the $5 million bribery allegations was later identified as Alexander Smirnov. Special counsel David Weiss, who also secured convictions against Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges, obtained an indictment against Smirnov for lying about the alleged bribes. Smirnov pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years in federal prison in December 2024.
Grassley and Johnson were the first lawmakers to investigate alleged Biden family influence-peddling activities in 2020. Their 87-page Senate report documented how Hunter Biden earned up to $83,333 per month sitting on Burisma’s board despite having no relevant experience.
The Senate report highlighted how Joe Biden became the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine” as vice president around the same time that Hunter and Devon Archer joined Burisma’s board in 2014.
After Joe Biden left the Obama White House, Hunter’s salary from Burisma was cut in half, according to the Senate investigation.
The Senate report also referenced a $142,300 wire transfer from a private holding company in Singapore through a Latvian bank to Archer’s company Rosemont Seneca Bohai “for a car.” Bank statements from a House Republican investigation later revealed the transfer was from Kazakhstani businessman Kenes Rakishev for a luxury vehicle that Hunter subsequently traded for a Porsche.
The newly released FBI documents raise serious questions about the thoroughness of federal investigations into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. The allegations span multiple years and involve detailed claims about meetings, financial arrangements, and efforts to influence foreign prosecutors.
The release of these documents comes as Republicans continue to press for transparency regarding federal investigations into the Biden family and other FBI scandals under the former president.