‘Anything New? Anything True?’ Dan Abrams Breaks Down FBI Form At Center Of Biden Corruption Allegations

NewsNation’s Dan Abrams took a deep dive into the FBI report on Burisma and the Bidens on his show Dan Abrams Live, starting by asking two questions: “Is anything new here, and maybe more importantly, is there anything true here?”

Abrams methodically took viewers through the FBI document that “outlines notes of an interview with a confidential FBI source, relaying a claim from someone else, Mykola Zlochevsky, the CEO of Burisma. It’s the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden was serving for a consultant for five years.”

The FBI 1023 report was released to the public by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Thursday to much fanfare on the right.

“In the document, the FBI source says Zlochevsky had essentially been shaken down by both Hunter and Joe Biden to the tune of $10 million,” Abrams said.

Abrams read a quote from the report, stating, “The source further said, ‘It costs $5 million to pay one Biden, and $5 million to pay another Biden.’ Now, obviously, if true, this would be a major scam,” Abrams declared.

Abrams then tackled his opening two questions, saying first that the report did “not really” include any new information.

“The only difference now is we’re seeing some more detail; seeing it for ourselves. Which leads to the biggest question? Is there anything true here?” he said.

Abrams continued:

And, despite that we can now see this document in black and white, the fundamental issues with it still remain: the FBI had spoken with a confidential source in June of 2020, who recounted what someone else had told him. That’s what this document is: it’s a source telling the FBI that Burisma CEO Zlochevsky made these claims; claims that even the source said he didn’t know that he believed.

The NewsNation host — who is also the founder of Mediaite — pointed out that the claim that Biden pushed for the ouster of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in order to protect Burisma doesn’t exactly add up.

“Ousting Shokin wasn’t like a wildcat maneuver,” he said. “Vice President Biden had the support of the international community, President Obama, even Senate Republicans to oust Shokin. And not because he was some crusader trying to shut down corruption in Ukraine, but for the opposite reason. He was allowing corruption to thrive.”

That said, Abrams noted that Hunter’s business dealings look terrible — at the very least.

“Hunter Biden did his dad no favors by using his name to get a lucrative consulting position for a potentially corrupt company like Burisma while his dad was tasked with cleaning up corruption in that same country,” Abrams said, continuing:

At the least, it looks really bad. It would not be surprising that Burisma was trying to pay people off; just hiring a totally unqualified Hunter Biden sure seems like an effort to impact US-Ukraine policy. But alleging that the current president took a bribe as vice president, as some have alleged, is simply not proven.

Abrams went on to slam those in conservative media who are “presuming” the allegations to be true, asserting that the GOP had President Biden “dead to rights” over claims he and Hunter engaged in shady business dealings with the Ukrainian company.

“But if you watched right-leaning media…following the release of that form, you would have thought President Biden was dead to rights,” Abrams said.

Abrams played a clip of Fox News anchor John Roberts displaying the report on-air.

“He’s literally just presuming that it’s true! That the payments actually went forward, even though the FBI and the guy that reported it are saying nothing of the sort,” Abrams said.

Abrams next played a clip of Fox Business News’ Larry Kudlow exclaiming, “There’s so much detail in these 1023s that it reads like a spy novel. You can’t make this stuff up.”

“Except, you literally can make this stuff up!” Abrams exclaimed. “And bad actors often do for the reason the FBI explained in its statement.”

The FBI statement on the FD-1023 emphasized that the mere fact information was recorded on the form “does not validate it.”

“Look, I have taken the Hunter Biden allegations very seriously from the beginning. I was critical of the media for not covering it enough,” Abrams said. “But alleging that Joe Biden took a bribe as vice president as some have done, is totally irresponsible, but not surprising.”

Watch the clip above via NewsNation.

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