President Biden slammed a reporter for asking “such a dumb question” after being quizzed as to why he was called the “big guy” in a FBI informant file accusing him of accepting a $5m bribe from a Ukrainian businessman.
The President was appearing at an event focused on reducing corporate junk fees when a reporter from the New York Post asked him, “Why did the Ukraine FBI informant file refer to you as the ‘big guy’, President Biden?
“Why is that term continuously applied?”
Biden snapped: “Why do you ask such a dumb question?”
According to the Post, an FBI informant told the bureau in June 2020 that an executive at Ukrainian gas company Burisma confided he bribed Joe and Hunter Biden and called the elder Biden the “big guy”.
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Republicans say the nickname’s use in the file is significant because it was not publicly known at the time.
The Post says it reported in October 2020 that an email from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop said the “big guy” was due 10% in a business deal with CEFC China Energy.
“Americans are concerned President Biden may have sold out the United States to make money for himself,” the Republican-led House Oversight Committee said on Thursday (June 15).
“But President Biden is only laughing about it and ridiculing those who ask questions.”
It is claimed that Hunter and brother James Biden received $4.8m from the CEFC partnership, according to a Washington Post review of laptop documents.
The Ukraine informant file alleges that Joe and Hunter Biden were each paid $5m to assist the interests of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, according to lawmakers who read it.
Burisma added the then-Vice President’s son, Hunter, to its board in April 2014. The Post alleges that Hunter was paid up to $1m per year despite having no relevant industry experience.
Biden attempted to laugh off the bribery allegation last week. “Where’s the money?” Biden told The Post at the time, adding: “I’m joking. It’s a bunch of malarkey.”
Former White House stenographer Mike McCormick says Joe Biden pushed US support for Ukraine’s natural gas industry during a trip to Kyiv just days after Hunter joined Burisma.
House Democrats impeached then President Donald Trump in 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family.
The Post says that Hunter has been under investigation for around five years by the US attorney’s office in Delaware for tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering and lying about drug use on a gun-purchase form.
The House Oversight Committee has led efforts to determine Joe Biden’s role in his family’s overseas dealings and recently identified nine relatives who allegedly received foreign income from China and Romania.
