‘The Big Guy’ sure is acting guilty
Hudson Crozier
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Ongoing curiosity about whether President Joe Biden accepted a bribe as vice president reached a peak last week when sources leaked details to the media about an FBI document describing the alleged scheme.
One especially pertinent detail is that Biden was reportedly referred to as “the Big Guy” in the document, which seemingly connects him to one of his son’s deals with a Chinese company in 2017. When asked by a New York Post reporter why the nickname is in the document, Biden’s response was stunning.
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“Why do you ask such a dumb question?” he said with a grin.
Based on previously known facts and what the new reports tell us, it’s worth reviewing this whole story to understand how absurd his answer is.
Biden’s son received a highly profitable position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma Holdings during his father’s vice presidency. Hunter had no experience in energy and later admitted that he got the job because of his last name, which executives saw as “gold” for their reputation. Being associated with America represented loyalty to “democracy and transparency” instead of the corruption typically associated with Ukraine, he said.
An email from Hunter’s laptop also showed an executive asking him for “advice on how you could use your influence” to benefit Burisma.
An FBI source reportedly detailed his conversation with a Burisma executive that occurred while Hunter was on the board. A Ukrainian prosecutor was investigating Burisma at the time, and the executive allegedly said he would “pay the Bidens” to do something about it. The source, who has been described as a “highly credible” informant the FBI has used multiple times, reportedly believed that the executive went on to send Joe Biden $5 million.
In 2018, Biden publicly bragged that he had gotten the Ukrainian government to fire the prosecutor by withholding federal loan money. “Well, son of a b****,” he said with a laugh. “He got fired.” A Ukrainian official later said that Burisma wouldn’t have gotten what it wanted without Biden’s pressure.
As if concerns about conflicts of interest weren’t enough at this point, Hunter planned to save 10% of a deal with CEFC China Energy for “the big guy.” The now-defunct energy firm was the largest in China and, as CNN once noted, “aligned itself so closely with the Chinese government that it was often hard to distinguish between the two.”
We are already fairly certain the president lied when he said he had no knowledge of his son’s business ventures. His son apparently introduced him to one of the Burisma executives. How connected would “the Big Guy” have to be for those in Hunter’s world to refer to him with such familiarity? How far does the lie go? What is there to hide?
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If we had a respectable news media, reporters would be hounding Biden with these questions, not allowing him to laugh them off. But the Washington Post is busy claiming that the bribery allegations are “thin,” and it took the New York Times 18 months to verify the laptop story. Don’t hold your breath.
Hudson Crozier is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.