LARRY KUDLOW: Why hasn't the FBI thoroughly investigated the Biden family charges?

When Sen. Chuck Grassley released a partially redacted version of the FBI's 1023 report regarding allegations concerning President Biden, Burisma and some other matters, the report actually completely changed a storyline that had been widely reported.   

Prior to yesterday, the widely circulated allegation was that Burisma oligarchs bribed President Biden in order to get rid of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma for corruption. As this argument went, once Biden got rid of Shokin, then Burisma could go ahead with their plans to start a new gas company or purchase an existing one in America.   

Now, these were allegations from earlier 1023 reports, but one key point was the search for 17 audio tapes representing conversations between a Burisma oligarch who allegedly phoned Joe Biden twice and Hunter Biden 15 times.   

So, in other words, the idea was Burisma was bribing Biden. Now, with Chuck Grassley's 1023 release yesterday, the alleged story has changed remarkably. In fact, completely. The new report suggests that it was Joe Biden who pushed the Burisma CEO to pay both himself and his son Hunter.  

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This isn't exactly President Biden taking a bribe. This is really President Biden extorting Burisma. A shakedown. From the FBI report: "CHS [that's Confidential Human Source] asked Burisma CEO Zlochevsky whether he was concerned about Burisma's involvement with the Bidens. Zlochevsky stated he didn't want to pay the Bidens and he was ‘pushed to pay’ them."

The Russian term Zlochevsky used to describe how he felt, the CHS clarified, is Russian criminal slang for "forced or coerced to pay." All this allegedly took place after the 2016 U.S. election, and Burisma CEO Zlochevsky further told CHS that he had many text messages and recordings that showed he, Zlochevsky, was forced to pay the Bidens.   

As a footnote, it's worth mentioning that the CHS earlier told Zlochevsky not to make any payments to the Bidens and to just hire a lawyer for $50,000 to help open up a company in the U.S. So, the original story was that Burisma bribed Biden to get rid of Shokin.   

Hence all the rumors and allegations that Biden was bribed by a foreign national to change policy — meaning, get rid of the Ukrainian prosecutor Shokin, but with Chuck Grassley's release yesterday of the latest 1023, the story has changed, big time.   

Now, it seems to read that neither CHS nor Zlochevsky, or even other Zlochevsky advisers, wanted to pay the Bidens at all, but it was Joe Biden who insisted, and in return for $5 million to Joe and $5 million to Hunter, Joe got rid of prosecutor Shokin — which, by the way, Joe bragged about later on in front of the Council on Foreign Relations.   

One other point here, while we're talking about extortion and shakedowns. The CHS asked Zlochevsky whether Hunter Biden or Joe Biden told him to retain Hunter on the Burisma board, and Burisma CEO replied: "They both did." Of course, they did. More money for the Biden crime family.   

After all, $83,000 a month is not nothing. It's not as good as $5 million, but, after all, you could build on it. Right here, I'm going to repeat that these are all allegations, but as we know, the Confidential Human Source has, from day one, garnered a lot of credibility from the FBI itself, who has paid him six figures for past information.   

So, I guess to verify these allegations, you want this CHS to somehow appear before some legal body under oath. Like, for example, the FBI, but wait a minute — the FBI has already deposed him. It's a federal offense to lie on these documents.  

Or, the FBI could and should be searching for the various text messages and audio tapes referred to by the CHS in these FD-1023 documents, but the FBI has done none of this, apparently and this story is at least three years old and maybe seven years old or even older than that.   

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Why hasn't the FBI thoroughly investigated these bombshell charges? Bribery is bribery, and that's bad enough, but presidential extortions and shakedowns, I think those are particularly awful and nasty forms of bribery if they’re true, and it strongly suggests that down through the years, it is Mr. Joe Biden who was the ringleader in the Biden family enterprise. Hunter was his chosen instrument.   

Even critics of the Bidens have gotten this story backwards. It was Joe, not Burisma, that launched the pay-for-play, and it was Joe, not Hunter, who's been calling the shots all along, but the basic story doesn't change. If these allegations are proven, this is the biggest political scandal in American history.  

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the July 21, 2023, edition of "Kudlow."