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Several Republican lawmakers are pumping the brakes on the controversy surrounding the alleged audio recordings of President Joe Biden speaking with a Ukrainian executive who supposedly bribed Biden several years ago.
House GOP members have been pressing the FBI for weeks to release an unclassified document that describes a report from a confidential source detailing an alleged bribery scheme between a foreign national and Biden while he was serving as vice president. The document, which was shown to select lawmakers last week, alleges that Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, accepted a $5 million bribe to push the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor investigating the Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, over potential corruption.
However, according to Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, the version of the FD-1023 form shown to a group of Republican lawmakers was a redacted version of the form that omitted reference to 17 audio recordings of phone calls between Biden family members and the Ukrainian executive at Burisma who allegedly bribed the president and his son.
According to Grassley's account, who spoke about the redacted reference on the Senate floor Monday, the Burisma executive in question has 15 audio tapes of such conversations with Hunter Biden, and two audio tapes of phone calls with the president.
News of the recordings have invigorated calls from Republicans for the FBI to unseal the FD-1023 in question for the American public to view without any "unnecessary" redactions. Many GOP lawmakers point to the allegations against Biden as a sign that the federal prosecutors are acting in a "two-tiered" justice system, one where former President Donald Trump faces a federal indictment over his handling of classified documents, and another where the FBI ignores allegations against Biden.
But according to a senior law enforcement official who spoke with NBC News, the accusations contained in the FD-1023 were reviewed by the FBI and a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney when the report was first made in June 2020, and the claims were deemed unsubstantiated.
Republicans themselves are also cautioning to take the information contained in the FD-1023 with heavy skepticism, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who said during an interview with Newsmax Tuesday, "We don't know if [the tapes are] legit or not."
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin also spoke with conservative radio show host Vicki McKenna about the allegations against Biden on Tuesday, and cautioned to take the information in the FBI form "with a grain of salt."
"Well, that's what this person says, but again, take that with a grain of salt," Johnson said in response to McKenna bringing up the alleged audio recordings. "This could be coming from a very corrupt oligarch who could be making this stuff up. Until you hear the audio tapes, until you know what the FBI did to investigate it, again, you have to suspend your judgment."
On Wednesday, more Republicans doubted the audio recordings' legitimacy. Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio told radio show host and Newsmax personality Chris Salcedo, "We don't know for sure if these tapes exist."
"If they do, and they say what Senator Grassley has said that he thinks they're going to say, I think it's a different animal," Jordan added.
Still, GOP lawmakers maintain that the allegations against Biden are worthy of notice, and Republicans have raised concerns over the FBI's lack of transparency surrounding how the bureau has looked into the accusations contained in the FD-1023.
"We the people have a right to know what's really going on, particularly with the guy who's the head of our government, the president of the United States," Jordan said during his conversation with Salcedo. "If this stuff, if what's alleged is actually, you know, accurate, that's huge news, that's huge concern, that's a big problem."
"What I'm telling you what we know is the corruption of the FBI and federal law enforcement," Johnson added in his conversation with McKenna. "So I don't want people getting ... I mean, we already know the Bidens are corrupt. The main issue here from my standpoint is the corruption of the FBI."
Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani also previously accused Biden of assisting in Hunter Biden's business deals in Ukraine, which both the president and his son have denied. When asked about the recent allegations in a press conference on Thursday, he told reporters, "Where's the money? I'm joking. It's a bunch of malarkey."
Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email for comment. The FBI has previously declined comment on the subject.
About the writer
Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more