Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed that the key whistleblower in the House Oversight Committee's investigation into President Joe Biden and his son's alleged bribery has died.
Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, claimed to have seen an FBI document that indicated Biden accepted a bribe and participated in a money laundering scheme with his family. The file, an FD-1023 form that allows the public to submit tips to the government about possible crimes, according to the lawmakers, allegedly also suggests that there are audio recordings of the incident. But neither Comer nor Grassley, nor the FBI or Rudy Giuliani have the tapes, and several Republicans this week told the press that they don't know if the recordings even exist.
Newsmax has repeatedly questioned Comer, Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., about the purported audio files, and Johnson recently told the outlet that Grassley never actually said that the recordings exist.
In a Saturday interview with Newsmax, Giuliani claimed that the whistleblower that informed him of the Bidens' alleged scheme had died.
"I did tell them three years ago, and they followed up on none of the evidence I gave them," Giuliani said.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, however, rebutted that claim in The Federalist last week, saying that the inquiry was "sent to Delaware for further investigation."
Barr's autobiography suggests that Giuliani could be the person who submitted the FBI form. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., called the report an example of "secondhand hearsay." and explained that its claims only "surfaced after Rudy Giuliani was making particular allegations" about the Bidens and Ukraine in early 2020.
"They were hoping that the people would just disappear or die," Giuliani alleged. "It's extraordinary. I gave them one witness that any investigator would jump through hoops to get to. Gave them a witness who was a woman, she was the chief accountant at this crooked company Burisma. She was the wife of the former owner, who died under suspicious circumstances. And she was willing to give up all of the off-shore bank accounts. Including the Bidens."
The person Giuliani may be referring to is the wife of Mykola Lisin, a co-founder of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, according to Raw Story. Lisin died in 2011, which predated Giuliani's trip to Ukraine to search for information on the president as well as Biden's first visit to Ukraine and Hunter's ascension to the company's board. The "suspicious circumstances" Giuliani alleged were a car accident.
Only right-wing outlets have reported the wife's death though none of them appear to know her name, Raw Story noted, and no report has details of the so-called mysterious circumstances Giuliani said surrounds her death either.
Grassley said during a Monday committee hearing that the purported whistleblower kept the alleged "tapes" as "insurance."
"According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses fifteen audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden. According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden. These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden," Grassley claimed.
"...Special Counsel Jack Smith has used a recording against former President Trump. Well, what's U.S. Attorney Weiss doing with respect to these alleged Joe and Hunter Biden recordings that are apparently relevant to a high-stakes bribery scheme?" he continued.
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
Comer also told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday that a source in the investigation into the Bidens' alleged money laundering scheme was missing, which follows last month's reports that a different source in the probe had also disappeared, according to Mediaite.
"And you estimate that nine Biden family members were beneficiaries – including grandchildren were being funneled money through these shell corporations, fake LLCs," Hannity said to the conservative lawmaker, before referencing the purported audio recordings. "You say about between 20 and $30 million from foreign nationals. Is that true? And what do we know about the 17 tapes? Do we have them? Do you know who has them?"
"Well, with the money, first of all, we've already tracked down a little over $10 million," Comer responded. "We're pretty confident, from other sources that that number will grow to beyond 20 million and it could be more if you factor in the president's brother, who dealt mainly in the Middle East."
"With respect to the tapes, look, it mentioned in the FBI form that the oligarch had 17 tapes of Biden – two with Joe Biden accepting the bribe, that he used that as an insurance policy," he added.
When Hannity asked if Comer had been in contact with the "high-ranking member or owner of Burisma," Comer replied that he hadn't.
"Unfortunately, nobody's had any contact with him for the last three years," Comer said. "You know, the MSNBC makes fun of me when I said that there are a lot of people that were involved in the Biden shenanigans that are currently missing. But with respect to this oligarch, we think we know where he is. He just hasn't been seen in public in a long time, but we're following the money."
Despite the host of accusations levied against Biden and his family, no tangible evidence has surfaced.
Read more
about the GOP Biden probe
Shares