Chuck Grassley's oversight overlooked red flags on Biden smear
Bringing "fabrications" to a national audience
This original reporting and analysis first appeared at Bleeding Heartland and is shared here as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For regular emails linking to all recent Bleeding Heartland articles and commentary, subscribe to the free Evening Heartland newsletter.
A year-end review from U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s office boasted that the senator’s oversight “touched on 97% of all taxpayer-funded agencies” during 2024. “Nearly every corner of government received Grassley’s thorough inspection – it’s all part of Grassley’s constant efforts to ensure the government is a service to the American people,” the report added.
One area that escaped Grassley’s “thorough inspection” was the collapse of bribery allegations against President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. For months in 2023, Grassley publicized an FBI informant’s explosive claims about the Bidens.
But he’s had nothing to say since Alexander Smirnov, the original source of those allegations, pleaded guilty in December to making up the whole story.
EVENTS REPORTED TO THE FBI “WERE FABRICATIONS”
Smirnov had been an FBI informant for about a decade when he told his handler in June 2020 that officials from the Ukrainian company Burisma had told him about their $5 million bribes to then Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the Burisma board. FBI staff memorialized those assertions in a form called an FD-1023.
Smirnov admitted in his plea agreement that those events “were fabrications.” He acknowledged that he first met the Burisma executives in 2017, when Biden was no longer vice president. He later “transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma” into bribery allegations once Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in 2020.
FBI officials determined in August 2020—while Donald Trump was still president—that the investigation into the bribery allegations should be closed. And when Republicans in Congress demanded to see the FD-1023 form in 2023, FBI officials warned that its allegations were unverified. But as Grassley told Fox News host Bill Hemmer at that time, “We aren’t interested in whether or not the accusations against Vice President Biden are accurate or not. We’re responsible for making sure the FBI does its job.”
Few Americans would recognize Smirnov’s name. But almost anyone who pays any attention to politics has heard about the so-called Biden bribery scandal. And no one deserves more credit for spreading the word about those fabrications than Senator Grassley.
HOW GRASSLEY AMPLIFIED LIES ABOUT NON-EXISTENT BRIBES
After the Justice Department unsealed Smirnov’s indictment in February 2024, Grassley tried to recast his role in smearing the Bidens. He claimed he “didn’t promote or vouch for the allegations in the 1023 as the truth,” but merely “pushed the FBI to do their job, because that’s my responsibility to the taxpayers and the people of Iowa.”
The senator’s own words tell a different story.
In May 2023, Grassley asserted during a Senate floor speech that his office was aware of an FBI document relating to “a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden.” He said “the allegations my office has received are very precise, very direct, and very consistent. Accordingly, they’re highly credible.” He and House Oversight Committee chair James Comer issued a subpoena for the document, and publicized their demand in a news release titled, “Grassley, Comer Demand FBI Record Alleging Criminal Scheme Involving Then-VP Biden.”
A few days later, Grassley gave an interview to the Fox News host Jesse Watters. He said the FBI document “comes from credible whistleblower disclosures,” and “seems to imply that then Vice President Biden was involved in some criminal activity.” Although Grassley did not directly accuse Biden of committing crimes, chyrons on screen as he spoke blared, “BIDEN’S BRIBERY SCANDAL BLOWS UP” and “WHISTLEBLOWER EXPOSES BIDEN’S PAY-TO-PLAY.”
Grassley didn’t discourage viewers from jumping to conclusions. On the contrary: he shared the video of that Fox News segment on his official YouTube channel.
Grassley went further in a June 2023 Senate floor speech. While blasting the FBI for not providing an unredacted version of the FD-1023, he described its contents in greater detail. “As the public knows that 1023 involves an alleged bribery scheme between then-Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden and a foreign national,” Grassley said.
He elaborated: “the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them. Seventeen total recordings.” Grassley wanted to know: “what’s U.S. Attorney [David] Weiss doing with respect to these alleged Joe and Hunter Biden recordings that are apparently relevant to a high-stakes bribery scheme?”
Grassley’s office published the FD-1023 in July 2023. In a news release, the senator touted its “very significant allegations from a trusted FBI informant implicating then-Vice President Biden in a criminal bribery scheme. While the FBI sought to obfuscate and redact, the American people can now read this document for themselves, without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats, thanks to brave and heroic whistleblowers.” He went on Fox News again to brag about releasing the document, saying, “there’s a lot of meat in it.”
The following month, Grassley reminded the public of the FBI document “alleging Joe Biden’s involvement in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national.” And in an October 2023 letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Grassley seemed to vouch for its accuracy, complaining that “A D.C.-based FBI task force sought to falsely discredit as foreign disinformation various Biden family-related confidential human sources, including the source behind the FD-1023.”
Grassley repeated the most scandalous claims from what he called “the Biden Family 1023” in prepared remarks delivered on the Senate floor in December 2023.
That FBI document shows a criminal bribery scheme.
The criminal scheme included Joe Biden and Hunter Biden each being paid five million dollars for Joe Biden to take a policy position in favor of a foreign national.
That policy position was ultimately taken – Joe Biden even bragged about it. […]
The 1023 includes reference to audio recordings with Joe Biden, text messages and records allegedly proving a criminal bribery activity, and that it was real.
To sum up: Grassley wasn’t just urging federal officials to investigate Smirnov’s claims. He used his access to the Senate floor and national media outlets to spread the unfounded allegations.
“THE LESSON FROM THE SMIRNOV DEBACLE”
Kris Kolesnik has worked on federal government oversight for 34 years, including nineteen years as senior counselor and director of investigations on Grassley’s staff, beginning in the 1980s. In recent years he has criticized his former boss for using the oversight process to wage “political battles.” Among other things, Kolesnik said in July 2023 that he “would never have advised” the senator to release the FD-1023 form.
After the Justice Department charged Smirnov in connection with the fabricated allegations, Kolesnik characterized Grassley’s work with Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan as “oversight amateur hour.” He saw the Smirnov case as another example of how those members of Congress “have weaponized duds against FBI ‘bias’ and Biden ‘family corruption.’”
I reached out to Kolesknik again in December after Smirnov pleaded guilty to felonies. He told me: “The lesson from the Smirnov debacle, from a senator’s point of oversight credibility, is not that Grassley ‘vouched for’—which he didn’t—the validity of Smirnov’s allegations that the Bidens took bribes. Rather, he stoked the flames by amplifying and serving up raw, unverified charges while lending the prestige of not only his high office, but the platform of the venerable floor of the United States Senate.”
Kolesnik noted that Grassley served up those allegations “to an audience that included some ravenous zealots who already believe in UFOs from outer space, Jewish space lasers causing wildfires, that their government can cause hurricanes, or even that a ‘Biden crime family’ took bribes merely because they heard it implied by a member of Congress they believe.”
As a seasoned FBI oversight practitioner, Kolesnik added, he believes “the FD-1023 warranted much greater skepticism, such as Grassley and others treated the Steele Dossier. Absent such caution, it risks becoming nothing more than an irresponsible political hit job.”
RADIO SILENCE FOLLOWING GUILTY PLEA
Grassley hasn’t said a word to set the record straight since Smirnov admitted to making false statements to the FBI.
I sought comment from the senator’s staff after Smirnov agreed to plead guilty in December, and once more after a federal judge sentenced the defendant to six years in prison on January 8. My questions were straightforward:
Does Senator Grassley now acknowledge that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden never took bribes from Burisma executives?
Does he acknowledge the FD-1023 form that he released in 2023 contained fabricated allegations?
There was no reply.
The year-end report on Grassley’s work in 2024 touts “Transparency brings accountability” as one of the senator’s “favorite phrases that rings true time and time again.”
Too bad he’s hasn’t held himself accountable for bringing lies about the president to the widest possible audience.
This is such an important piece, Laura. Senator Grassley has become nothing more than a liar. I can’t fathom why, but it is so clearly true. He has lost his compass. Iowans deserve so much more from our representatives. Thank you for continuing your fearless reporting of the truth.
Awesome work, Laura! There's so much that Iowans could do with this, in a different time. But considering more than half of Iowa voters now live in an alternative FOX-INFUSED universe, our 90+ moldy senator would likely get reelected if the election were held today.