Washington, D.C. (June 29, 2023)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, sent a letter to Chairman James Comer sharing the transcript of statements made by Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, to an associate of Rudy Giuliani’s directly contradicting allegations repeated in the FBI Form FD-1023 tipsheet, which the FBI made available to all Committee Members.  Republican Committee Members identified Mr. Zlochevsky as the source of the information relayed to the FBI by a confidential human source (CHS) in the Form FD-1023.  As part of the 2019 impeachment inquiry against then-President Trump, the Committee received a transcript created by associates of Mr. Giuliani recording statements by Mr. Zlochevsky that squarely rebut these allegations.

“Despite being interviewed as part of a campaign by Mr. Giuliani and his proxies in 2019 and 2020 to procure damaging information about the Biden family, Mr. Zlochevsky explicitly and unequivocally denied those allegations.  Specifically, Mr. Zlochevsky denied (1) that anyone at Burisma had ‘any contacts’ with then former Vice President Biden or his representatives while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board, and (2) that former Vice President Biden or his staff ‘in any way’ assisted Mr. Zlochevsky or Burisma,” wrote Ranking Member Jamie Raskin in the letter.

As both the FBI and Mr. Giuliani himself stated, the unverified, second-hand allegations in the June 2020 Form FD-1023 largely repeated allegations Mr. Giuliani shared previously with the FBI.

Mr. Zlochevsky’s statements are recorded in a written document that was produced by Mr. Giuliani’s associate, Lev Parnas, to the House Committees overseeing former President Trump’s first impeachment inquiry in January 2020, including the Oversight Committee, and was made available to both Democratic and Republican Members.  The Department of Justice has been in possession of the document since the FBI seized Mr. Parnas’ phone—including the document—pursuant to a warrant in 2019.

Mr. Zlochevsky’s statements are further evidence of former Attorney General Barr’s own warning that “[t]here are a lot of agendas in the Ukraine, there are a lot of cross-currents, and we can’t take anything we receive from the Ukraine at face value.”  During the CHS’s June 2020 interview memorialized in the Form FD-1023, the CHS relayed conversations with a Ukrainian oligarch from years earlier.  In doing so, the CHS explicitly noted that it is not unusual for Ukrainian business executives to brag and show off and that he could not offer any opinion as to the veracity of the allegations he was relaying. 

“For this reason, the full factual context surrounding the form—including Mr. Zlochevsky’s statements contradicting the reported information—is crucial to properly understanding these allegations.  In this case, that context includes not just repeated and failed efforts in 2019 and 2020 by Mr. Giuliani, Senate Republicans, and Trump’s Justice Department to find support for these allegations, but also clear evidence that then-Vice President Biden’s actions carried out the policy of the United States, its allies, and its international partners to combat corruption in Ukraine,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin.

Click here to read today’s letter.

Click here to read the transcript.

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