‘We informed them that we felt that the 1023 had indicia of credibility sufficient to merit further investigation,’ a former U.S. attorney said.
U.S. Department of Justice officials corroborated some of the information an FBI source provided to the bureau on allegations that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, were bribed, a former official who worked on the case said in newly reviewed testimony.
“We did corroborate certain things” from the source, Scott Brady, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, told a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Oct. 23.
Members of Congress obtained and released over the summer a copy of the summary from FBI agents who spoke with the source, with the source conveying comments from Burisma executives concerning the Bidens.
Among them was the claim that it cost $5 million to pay one Biden and $5 million to pay another Biden.
Mr. Biden worked for Burisma, a Ukrainian firm, for years while President Biden was vice president, including in 2016. That’s the year the discussion involving bribery took place, the source told the FBI in 2020.
Mr. Brady, appointed under President Donald Trump in 2017, told members this week he was tasked by superiors to accept and vet Ukraine-related information sent to or gathered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which includes the FBI.
“We were to assess the credibility of information and anything that we felt was credible or had indicia of credibility, we were then to provide to the offices that had predicated grand jury investigations that were ongoing,” Mr. Brady, who was asked to resign by President Biden after he took office, told the House panel.
Lack of Communication
After working to corroborate some of the information from the interview summary, Mr. Brady said his team passed the summary and the work they’d done to multiple offices, including the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Delaware.
That office is headed by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, another Trump appointee. Mr. Weiss has for years been investigating Mr. Biden for intentional tax avoidance and other crimes.
Mr. Brady’s team briefed Mr. Weiss’ team in October 2020 on the summary, known as an FD-1023.
