Democrats on the House Oversight Committee say they uncovered evidence from the 2019 impeachment inquiry into then-President Donald Trump that they say rebuts Republican allegations of a possible impeachment scheme. corruption between Joe Biden and a foreign national.
The document, published in a letter from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a ranking member of the committee, to its chair, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., is a 2019 questionnaire completed by Mykola Zlochevsky, the co- founder of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Biden’s son Hunter once served on the board. Zlochevsky denies ever having contact with Joe Biden while he was vice president or receiving help from his staff while Hunter was on the board.
The questionnaire was given to Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump’s personal attorney. Giuliani was seeking information on Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election, when Biden was expected to be one of the Democrats likely to challenge Trump. Parnas gave the questionnaire to House committees investigating the former president, and it was later obtained by the FBI when it seized Parnas’ phone in 2019. It was never made public during the investigation. of impeachment.
When asked to detail then-Vice President Biden’s contact with his office from 2013 to 2019, Zlochevsky wrote (in all caps): “No one from Burisma has ever had contact with the vice president. -President Biden or persons working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement.” When asked if Biden or his team had helped Burisma in any way with trade deals or meetings, he wrote “NO.”
At the time, Parnas passed the entire document to Giuliani and another lawyer, Victoria Toensing.
Democrats say the questionnaire provides critical context that casts doubt on Republicans’ claims that Biden profited from his son’s business ventures or even received a bribe from a foreign national. In early May, Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said a whistleblower informed them that the FBI had a document known as FD-1023 that included an unverified allegation from a source. human who said Biden, when he was vice president, was involved in a bribery scheme involving a foreign national.
During a speech on the floor in June after viewing the document, Grassley said, “The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden,” although neither Grassley nor Comer appear to have publicly stated that Zlochevsky was the alien in question.
In a letter to Comer, Raskin wrote, “These statements directly contradict and rebut the allegations in Form FD-1023. »
“Mr. Zlochevsky’s statements are just one of many statements that have debunked corruption allegations against President Biden that were first made by Rudy Giuliani and have been reviewed by the country’s own Justice Department. ‘former President Trump.’
He added that FD-1023 contains “unsubstantiated second-hand hearsay allegations” and that the confidential source from which the information originated “explicitly noted that it is not unusual for Ukrainian business executives to brag and show off and that he could offer no opinion supporting the veracity of the allegations he was relaying.
Comer, in response, did not comment on the substance of the questionnaire Zlochevsky had filled out and instead called on Raskin to join him in asking the FBI to release Form FD-1023 to the public.
“This file is not part of the material that Rudy Giuliani provided to the FBI,” he said. “This unclassified file stands on its own and commemorates conversations of a confidential human source with a Burisma leader dating back to 2015. The Burisma leader claims that then-Vice President Biden solicited and received a bribe. $5 million de-vin in exchange for certain shares.
“Executive also claims he didn’t pay ‘the big guy’ directly, but used so many bank accounts it would take 10 years to sort them out. … Ranking member Raskin is rapidly losing his credibility as he continues to aid and abet the Biden family cover-up.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com