查克·格拉斯利参议员周四公布了一名联邦调查局(FBI)秘密线人未经证实的说法，即多年前，拜登家族“逼迫”一名乌克兰寡头向他们支付1000万美元。
这极其罕见的一步R-爱荷华州的格拉斯利进一步公布了一项指控，民主党批评人士警告不要接受表面价值，白宫继续否认这一指控，称特朗普政府已对其进行调查并“揭穿”。
最近几个月，这份名为FD-1023的非机密文件的细节浮出水面当共和党人寻找任何证据时乔·拜登总统参与了他的儿子亨特·拜登有争议的海外商业交易，总统和他的助手一再表示他没有这样做。
国会中的共和党人2005年5月，联邦调查局首次就FD-1023号法案发出传票，它记录了2020年6月由一个机密的人类来源转发的信息。该局后来向众议院监督委员会的两位最高成员展示了一份经过编辑的版本，在藐视法庭投票的威胁下对联邦调查局局长克里斯托弗·雷的指控，并告诉了全体陪审团。
联邦调查局副局长保罗·阿巴特(Paul Abbate)上个月在参议院作证时说，FD-1023已经被编辑以保护消息来源:“这可能是一个生死攸关的问题。”
在周四的一份声明中，格拉斯利表示，他的动机是透明:“美国人民现在可以自己阅读这份文件，而不用经过政客或官僚的过滤。”
格拉斯利的办公室表示，他获得了他的FD-1023版本，该版本仅经过轻微编辑，“通过司法部举报者受法律保护的披露，”尽管该局在一份声明中表示，这样的发布“至少会不必要地危及机密来源的安全。”
民主党人抨击格拉斯利发布FD-1023，指责他选择性地突出未经证实的信息，以伤害政治对手。
白宫发言人伊恩·萨姆斯(Ian Sams)在一份回应该消息的声明中说:“值得注意的是，国会共和党人不顾事实，急于追求拜登总统，继续推动多年来已经被揭穿的说法。”。“很明显，国会共和党人决意玩无耻、不诚实的政治，并拒绝让真相挡道，”萨姆斯说。
监督委员会的资深民主党人、马里兰州众议员杰米·拉斯金(Jamie Raskin)在自己的一份声明中重申，拜登总统“没有任何不当行为的实际证据”，并认为“脱离解释性背景发布这份文件是委员会共和党人的又一次明显的绝望尝试。”
但是众议院监督委员会主席詹姆斯·卡莫。对此提出质疑，并在一份声明中表示，“美国人民必须能够自己阅读这份记录。”
FD-1023引用了一位未透露姓名的消息人士的话，他讲述了2015年和2016年与乌克兰能源公司Burisma首席执行官Mykola Zlochevsky的一系列互动，buri SMA在2013年聘请亨特·拜登担任董事会成员。
该消息人士在FD-1023中表示，在接下来一年的一次会议和电话中，兹洛切夫斯基声称，他“被迫”向乔和亨特·拜登每人支付500万美元，显然是为了换取解雇一名名叫维克托·肖金的乌克兰检察官，据称他当时正在调查布里斯马。
有人断言，时任副总统的老拜登采取行动让肖金下台是为了保护布里斯马，但几位知名国际领导人对这位前乌克兰检察官的广泛批评削弱了这一断言。
确保肖金下台是美国国务院当时的官方政策立场，一旦肖金被免职，欧盟驻乌克兰特使扬·通宾斯基(Jan Tombinski)称赞这一决定是“一个重新开始的机会”
FD-1023中引用的消息人士此前为联邦调查局所知，他补充说，兹洛切夫斯基告诉他，他有“17段录音”涉及拜登夫妇，包括与乔·拜登的两段录音和仅与亨特的15段录音。美国联邦调查局副局长阿巴特在6月作证说，他“不知道”这些录音是否真实。
作为2019年9月的总统候选人，老拜登告诉记者，“我从来没有和我儿子谈过他的海外商业交易。”此后，白宫重申了这一声明。
格拉斯利过去一直批评原始情报的泄露。他是国会对臭名昭著的特朗普-俄罗斯档案的作者克里斯托弗·斯蒂尔(Christopher Steele)最直言不讳的批评者之一。与FD-1023中引用的机密消息来源一样，斯蒂尔在2016年总统大选前提供了有关特朗普在莫斯科活动的未经核实的报告，也为联邦调查局所知，并得到了联邦调查局的信任。(特朗普一直否认任何不当行为的指控。)
2023年6月1日，参议员查克·格拉斯利在国会大厦举行的共和党参议院午餐会外，参议院正在制定债务限额法案。
汤姆·威廉姆斯/CQ-通过盖蒂图片社点名
前国会调查员兼联邦执法官员约翰·科恩(John Cohen)表示，看到一名立法者发布“未经证实的原始情报，而没有提供更多细节，说明收到这份报告的人在调查时发现了什么，这令人“非常不安”
“以这种方式发布报告会让人觉得这是为了加强政治叙事，如果是真的，那么公众应该持怀疑态度，”科恩说，他也是美国广播公司新闻的撰稿人。
联邦调查局此前曾这样描述FD-1023表格:“它们没有反映调查人员基于更全面的背景或理解得出的结论。记录这些信息并不能验证它，确立它的可信度，或者与FBI在调查中已知或开发的其他信息进行权衡。”
与拜登有关的FD-1023指出，消息来源向联邦调查局报告说，他们见过Burisma的首席执行官一次，并与他通了两次电话，但无法“就首席执行官所声称的真实性提供任何进一步的意见”。
众议员拉斯金上个月表示，2020年，司法部采访了消息人士，调查了消息人士的说法，然后结束了调查。
然而，卡莫说，当时联邦调查局告诉他，这些指控“没有被证明是错误的”
6月，格拉斯利在参议院的一次演讲中表示，“司法部和联邦调查局必须展示他们的工作。”
In rare move, Grassley releases unverified FBI source report alleging Biden involvement in bribe
Sen. Chuck Grassley on Thursday released a confidential FBI informant's unverified claim that, years ago, the Biden family "pushed" a Ukrainian oligarch to pay them $10 million.
Theexceedingly rare stepby Grassley, R-Iowa, further promulgates an allegation that Democratic critics warned against accepting at face value and which the White House continues to deny, saying it has been investigated under the Trump administration and "debunked."
Details of the unclassified document, known as an FD-1023, have emerged in recent monthsas Republicans search for any evidencethat President Joe Biden engaged in the controversial overseas business dealings of his son Hunter Biden, which the president and his aides have repeatedly said he didn't do.
Republicans in Congressin May first subpoenaed the FBI for the FD-1023, which documents information relayed by a confidential human source in June 2020. The bureau later showed a redacted version to the top two members of the House Oversight Committee and then,under threat of a contempt voteagainst FBI Director Christopher Wray, shared it with the full panel.
The FBI's deputy director, Paul Abbate, testified before the Senate last month that the FD-1023 had been redacted to protect the source: "This a question of life and death, potentially."
In a statement on Thursday, Grassley said he was motivated by transparency: "The American people can now read this document for themselves, without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats."
Grassley's office said he obtained his version of the FD-1023, which is only lightly redacted, "via legally protected disclosures by Justice Department whistleblowers," though the bureau said in a statement that such a release "at a minimum - unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source."
Democrats pounced on Grassley for publishing the FD-1023, accusing him of selectively highlighting uncorroborated information to hurt a political opponent.
"It is remarkable that congressional Republicans, in their eagerness to go after President Biden regardless of the truth, continue to push claims that have been debunked for years," White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement responding to the release. "It's clear that congressional Republicans are dead-set on playing shameless, dishonest politics and refuse to let truth get in the way," Sams said.
In a statement of his own, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, reiterated there had been "no actual evidence of wrongdoing" by President Biden and argued that "releasing this document in isolation from explanatory context is another transparently desperate attempt by Committee Republicans."
But House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., challenged that, saying in a statement, "The American people must be able to read this record for themselves."
The FD-1023 cites an unnamed source who recounts a series of interactions in 2015 and 2016 with Mykola Zlochevsky, the chief executive of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm that hired Hunter Biden as a board member in 2013.
The source says in the FD-1023 that in a meeting and in phone calls over the next year, Zlochevsky claimed that he was "forced" to pay Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each, apparently in exchange for firing a Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin who was purportedly investigating Burisma at the time.
The assertion that the elder Biden, who was then vice president, acted to have Shokin removed in an effort to protect Burisma has been undercut by widespread criticism of the former Ukrainian prosecutor by several high-profile international leaders.
Securing Shokin's ouster was the U.S. State Department's official policy stance at the time, and once Shokin was removed, the European Union's envoy to Ukraine, Jan Tombinski, lauded the decision as "an opportunity to make a fresh start."
The source cited in the FD-1023, who was previously known to the FBI, added that Zlochevsky told him he had "17 recordings" involving the Bidens, including two with Joe Biden and 15 with only Hunter. Abbate, the FBI's deputy director, testified in June that he had "no idea" if the recordings were real.
As a presidential candidate in September 2019, the elder Biden told reporters, "I've never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings." The White House has since reaffirmed that statement.
Grassley has in the past criticized the release of raw intelligence. He was one of Congress' most vocal critics of Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous Trump-Russia dossier. Steele, like the confidential source cited in the FD-1023, was also known to the FBI and trusted by the FBI when he provided his unverified reports about Trump's activities Moscow ahead of the 2016 presidential election. (Trump has long denied any allegations of wrongdoing.)
John Cohen, a former congressional investigator and federal law enforcement official, said it was "highly disconcerting" to see a lawmaker release "uncorroborated, raw intelligence without additional detail on what those who received this reporting found when they investigated it."
"Releasing the report in this manner creates the perception that is was done to reinforce a political narrative and if true, then it should be viewed with skepticism by the public," said Cohen, who is also an ABC News contributor.
The FBI has previously described FD-1023 forms this way: "They do not reflect the conclusions of investigators based on a fuller context or understanding. Recording this information does not validate it, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI in our investigations."
The FD-1023 related to Biden states that the source reported to the FBI that they met Burisma's CEO once and spoke with him on the phone twice and was unable to "provide any further opinion as to the veracity" of what the CEO claimed.
Rep. Raskin said last month that in 2020, the Justice Department interviewed the source, investigated the source's claims and then closed the investigation.
Comer, however, said then that the FBI told him that the allegations had "not been disproven."
In a speech on the Senate floor, Grassley said in June that "the Justice Department and FBI must show their work."
