A former US prosecutor said the FBI hampered his ability to investigate the work of his first son, Hunter Biden, for the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma, and that special counsel David Weiss skipped a briefing on bribery allegations by president and his son, according to testimony before Congress reviewed by The Correo.
Scott Brady, the top federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh from 2017 to 2021, recounted the “challenging working relationship” with the FBI and Weiss’ Delaware office during a closed-door Oct. 23 interview with the House Judiciary Committee. .
“I think there was a reluctance on the part of the FBI to actually perform any tasks related to our assignment,” Brady told members and staff of the Judiciary, clarifying that his role involved “investigating allegations of corruption in Ukraine in general,” as well as as “anything that crossed paths with Hunter Biden and his role at Burisma.”
A former U.S. attorney said the FBI hampered his ability to investigate his first son, Hunter Biden’s, work for Burisma. AP Special Counsel David Weiss also skipped a briefing on bribery allegations against the president and his son, according to congressional testimony reviewed by The Post.
Brady said he was given the job by Senior Deputy Attorney General Seth DuCharme and Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who ended up having to force Weiss to cooperate with the Pittsburgh office.
The former federal prosecutor said the “credible” allegations his team received involving the president’s son apparently worried officials at FBI headquarters, as the investigation spanned the entire presidential election cycle, from January to October 2020.
“There was a larger group at the FBI, including FBI headquarters, that had eyes on what was happening and that required approval for any investigative steps we asked FBI Pittsburgh to take,” Brady said.
Scott Brady, a former federal prosecutor, said the “credible” allegations his team received about the president’s son apparently worried officials at FBI headquarters. AFP via Getty Images
“[T]Theirs is a very delicate investigation and it was an election year,” he added.
In one case, at least “17 different people” at FBI headquarters had to approve an assignment in his office, a requirement he said he had “never seen in my career.”
Brady also said he was “surprised” to have first learned of the contents of Hunter’s abandoned laptop through The Post’s explosive October 2020 reporting, which revealed the first son’s influence-peddling schemes in the foreign.
“I thought that would be something, especially as it was publicly reported, there is information related to Hunter Biden’s activities on the Burisma board of directors in Ukraine, that could have been helpful in our evaluation of the information we were receiving about him.” said.
Brady also said he was “surprised” to have first learned of the contents of Hunter’s abandoned laptop through The Post’s shocking October 2020 reporting.
The most shocking finding of their investigation came in a confidential informant file from June 2020, which has since been released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which alleged that Hunter and Joe Biden received a $10 bribe payment. million dollars from the owner of Burisma.
Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner, told the whistleblower in a 2016 meeting that he had been “forced” to pay the Bidens to fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin while he was investigating the natural gas company.
In a letter Wednesday, Grassley also said that more than 40 confidential sources had provided other “criminal information” about the Biden family, which had been covered up by Justice Department and FBI officials.
According to Brady, the FD-1023 file contained “sufficient indications of credibility” to transmit it to the FBI field office in Baltimore, Weiss’ office and two other US attorney offices with “ongoing” investigations in the eastern and southern districts of New York. York. .
“[T]“This is a very sensitive investigation and it was an election year,” Brady said.
“Generally speaking, from a process perspective, I think there was both skepticism about the information that we were developing, that we had received, and then skepticism and then fatigue with that information,” Brady also said.
“I think they were very concerned about any exchange of information with our office,” he added, mentioning that “it was typically a challenge to interact with the Delaware investigative team.”
“[A]At one point, communication between our offices was so restricted that we had to provide written questions to the investigative team in Delaware, almost in the form of interrogatories, and receive written answers,” Brady said.
Brady recounted the “challenging working relationship” with the FBI and Weiss’ Delaware office during a closed-door interview Oct. 23 with the House Judiciary Committee. Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
That reluctance to delve further into Biden’s allegations included Weiss, who ended up absenting himself from the Pittsburgh office’s final “substantive briefing” on the FBI file and other materials relevant to the Hunter investigation in October 2020.
However, an assistant U.S. attorney previously identified by IRS whistleblowers as having impeded their own investigation into Hunter Biden was sitting at the table, along with other high-ranking prosecutors from both offices.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf also attempted to discredit information from Brady’s office under the belief that it all came from former President Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
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.Getty Images
Brady said he made it clear to both 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 the bribery investigation had been submitted to Delaware prosecutors, despite House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) stated the opposite, that the investigation had been closed. below.
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 scheduled to go on trial next year on weapons charges after lying on a federal firearm purchase form about his drug use.
Weiss revealed that allegation against the first son in September, but has not yet filed other charges related to his more than five-year investigation.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn