A former U.S. attorney said the FBI hindered its ability to investigate eldest son Hunter Biden’s work for Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma — and special counsel David Weiss skipped briefings on bribery allegations against the president and his son, according to congressional testimony reviewed by The Post.
Scott Brady, the top federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh from 2017 to 2021, recounted a “challenging working relationship” with the FBI and Weiss’ office in Delaware during a closed-door interview Oct. 23 with the House Judiciary Committee.
“I think there’s been a reluctance on the part of the FBI to really do anything related to our assignment,” Brady told members and staff of the Judiciary, explaining that his role involved “investigating the broader Ukrainian corruption allegations” as well as “any only intersected with Hunter Biden and his role in Burisma.”
A former US attorney says the FBI hindered his ability to investigate eldest son Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma.AP Special counsel David Weiss also skipped briefings on corruption allegations against the president and his son, according to congressional testimony reviewed by The Post.AP
Brady said he was tasked with the role by Chief Deputy Associate Attorney General Seth DuCharme and Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who ultimately forced Weiss to cooperate with the Pittsburgh office.
The former federal prosecutor said the “credible” allegations his team received involving the president’s son appeared to worry officials at FBI headquarters as the investigation spanned the presidential election cycle, from January to October 2020.
“There are larger groups at the FBI, including FBI headquarters, that are looking at what’s going on and that need signatures on any investigative steps that the Pittsburgh FBI is asked to take by us,” Brady said.
Scott Brady, a former federal prosecutor, said the “credible” allegations his team received involving the president’s son appeared to worry officials at FBI headquarters. AFP via Getty Images
“[T]he is a very sensitive investigation, and it is an election year,” he added.
In one instance, at least “17 different people” at FBI headquarters had to approve assignments in his office — a condition he said he had never seen “ever in my career.”
Brady also said he was “shocked” to first learn of the contents of Hunter’s abandoned laptop through The Post’s bombshell October 2020 report, which revealed the eldest son’s influence peddling scheme overseas.
“I think it will be something, especially as it has been publicly reported, there is information related to the activities of Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma in Ukraine, which may help in our assessment of the information we received about him,” he said.
Brady also said he was “shocked” to first learn of the contents of Hunter’s abandoned laptop through The Post’s October 2020 report.AP
The most shocking finding of his investigation was in the June 2020 confidential whistleblower file — which was released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — who alleges Hunter and Joe Biden received $10 million in bribes from the owner of Burisma.
Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner, told whistleblowers in a 2016 meeting that he had been “forced” to pay the Biden family to have Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired while he investigated the natural gas company.
In a letter on Wednesday, Grassley also said that more than 40 confidential sources had provided other “criminal information” about the Biden family, which DOJ and FBI officials had covered up.
According to Brady, the FD-1023 file contains “sufficient credibility” to be sent to the FBI’s Baltimore field office, Weiss’s office and two other US attorneys’ offices with “ongoing” investigations in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.
“[T]his is a very sensitive investigation, and it’s an election year,” Brady.AP said
“In general, from a process perspective, I think there is skepticism of the information that we develop, that we receive, and skepticism and then exhaustion of that information,” Brady said.
“I think they’re very concerned about any sharing of information with our office,” he added, noting “it’s always a challenge to interact with the investigative team from Delaware.”
“[A]At one point, communication between our offices was so limited that we had to give written questions to the investigative team in Delaware, almost in the form of an interrogation, and receive written answers back,” Brady said.
Brady recounted a “challenging working relationship” with the FBI and Weiss’ office in Delaware during a closed-door interview Oct. 23 with the House Judiciary Committee.Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
The refusal to further investigate Biden’s allegations included Weiss, who eventually completed the Pittsburgh office’s final “substantive briefing” on FBI files and other materials related to the Hunter investigation in October 2020.
However, an assistant US attorney previously identified by IRS whistleblowers as obstructing their own investigation into Hunter Biden has a seat at the table, along with other senior prosecutors from both offices.
Assistant US attorney Lesley Wolf also sought to discredit information from Brady’s office under the belief that it all came from former President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
House Republicans last month launched an impeachment inquiry into the president to determine whether he was involved in corruption or benefited from his son’s foreign business entanglements.Getty Images
Brady said that he explained to Weiss and Wolf that the FBI form FD-1023 did not come from Giuliani, as well as other information relevant to their investigation.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr also told The Post earlier this year that a corruption investigation had been submitted to the Delaware prosecutor’s office — despite claims to the contrary from House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) that the investigation had been closed. down
House Republicans last month launched an impeachment inquiry into the president to determine whether he engaged in corruption or benefited from his son’s foreign business entanglements while serving as vice president.
Hunter Biden is now scheduled to go on trial next year on gun charges after he lied on a federal gun purchase form about his drug use.
Weiss filed charges against the first son in September, but has yet to bring any other charges related to the more than five-year investigation.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
