WASHINGTON — President Biden lashed out Thursday when asked why he’s called the “big guy” in an FBI informant file accusing him of accepting a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian businessman while vice president.
“Why did the Ukraine FBI informant file refer to you as the ‘big guy,’ President Biden? Why is that term continuously applied?” The Post asked Biden at an event focused on reducing corporate junk fees.
“Why do you ask such a dumb question?” the 80-year-old president snapped.
An informant told the FBI in June 2020 that an executive at Ukrainian gas company Burisma confided that he bribed Joe and Hunter Biden and called the elder Biden the “big guy,” according to congressional sources who read the file.
Republicans say the nickname’s use is significant because it was not publicly known at the time. Nearly four months later, The Post reported in October 2020 that an email from first son Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop said the “big guy” was due 10% in a business deal with CEFC China Energy.
“Americans are concerned President Biden may have sold out the United States to make money for himself. But President Biden is only laughing about it and ridiculing those who ask questions,” the Republican-led House Oversight Committee said Thursday. “We’ll continue to seek answers, transparency, and accountability.”
Two Biden family business partners in the CEFC deal — Tony Bobulinski and James Gilliar — separately referred to Joe Biden as the “big guy.”
Hunter and first brother James Biden received $4.8 million from the CEFC partnership, according to a Washington Post review of laptop documents.
The Ukraine informant file alleges that Joe and Hunter Biden were each paid $5 million to assist the interests of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, according to lawmakers who read it.
The businessman allegedly told the FBI’s “highly credible” informant that he kept 15 audio recordings of Hunter and two tapes of Joe Biden as an “insurance policy.”
Burisma added the then-VP’s son to its board in April 2014 as Joe Biden took over the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy in the aftermath of an uprising that toppled the country’s pro-Russian leaders. Hunter was paid up to $1 million per year despite no relevant industry experience.
Biden attempted to laugh off the bribery allegation last week.
“Where’s the money?” Biden told The Post at the time, adding: “I’m joking. It’s a bunch of malarkey.”
On Tuesday, Biden grinned and chuckled when asked about the alleged existence of tapes of him getting bribed.
House Republicans who read the informant file said last week that it describes how the elder Biden allegedly pushed for the ouster of Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin, who was fired in March 2016, in return for payment.
The informant file also makes reference to Burisma seeking to partner with or buy a US energy business, the lawmakers said.
Former White House stenographer Mike McCormick says Joe Biden pushed US support for Ukraine’s natural gas industry during a trip to Kyiv just days after Hunter quietly joined Burisma.
House Democrats impeached then-President Donald Trump in 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family and argued at the time that US allies also wanted Shokin to lose his job over his own corruption.
Joe Biden has publicly said he used $1 billion in US loan guarantees as leverage to force Shokin from office. “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired,” Biden said at a 2018 event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Hunter Biden has been under investigation for about five years by the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware for tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering and lying about his drug use on a gun purchase form.
The House Oversight Committee has led efforts to determine Joe Biden’s role in his family’s overseas dealings and recently identified nine relatives who allegedly received foreign income from shady figures in China and Romania.
Two IRS whistleblowers recently testified to the House Ways and Means Committee to outline an alleged cover-up in the Hunter Biden criminal case including “preferential treatment” and alleged false testimony to Congress by Attorney General Merrick Garland about Delaware US Attorney David Weiss’ ability to independently bring charges.
Hunter wrote in emails retrieved from his laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to his father.
President Biden denies ever discussing business with Hunter or James Biden — even though evidence has emerged that he interacted with their associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.
