President Joe Biden dismissed a question about alleged audio tapes recorded by the founder of Burisma Holdings as an “insurance policy” in a bribery deal — grinning and shaking his head when pressed on the scandalous claim.
On Thursday, the FBI provided Congress with an FBI informant document that alleged Joe Biden accepted a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian oligarch.
According to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the document also says the founder of Bursima, Mykola Zlochevsky, who allegedly paid Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them as an “insurance policy.”
“Are there tapes you accepted bribes, President Biden? Is that true?” a New York Post reporter asked Biden Tuesday.
The president broke his stride, turned, grinned, and slowly shook his head while walking away:
The question was the first time a reporter asked Joe Biden about the alleged audio recordings.
Last week, Joe Biden mockingly called the allegation of a bribe “malarkey,” and jokingly questioned, “Where is the money?”
House Republicans described the alleged payout to Joe Biden as conveyed in small sums through separate bank accounts, which would take about ten years for investigators to unravel.
Ukrainian businessman and founder of Burisma Holdings Mykola Zlochevsky during a media conference in Kiev, Ukraine, March 19, 2012. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
According to polling, 52 percent of voters believe the Biden family received payments from foreign nationals to influence policy, while just 31 percent said they did not believe it. Another 15 percent were unsure.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.