Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday for refusing to answer questions about alleged audio tapes of then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden speaking with a Ukrainian executive who may have paid bribes to both of them.
“Last month, a whistleblower brought to light the existence in the FBI of a report, an FD-1023, in which the informant alleges that President Biden and his family members engaged in a $5 million bribery scheme during his time as vice president,” Cruz said. “Deputy Director Abbate, is it true that the FBI has a report making those allegations?”
“I’m not going to comment on that, Senator,” Abbate responded.
When repeatedly pressed on the matter, Abbate said that he would not comment on the matter and that “this is an area that I’m not going to get into with you, senator.”
Cruz accused Abbate of “stonewalling and covering up serious allegations of evidence of corruption from the president.”
“Yesterday, Senator Chuck Grassley stood on the Senate floor and alleged that there are 17 recordings of this informant from Burisma, Ukrainian natural gas company,” Cruz said. “15 of them are recordings, voice recordings, of him talking to Hunter Biden, two of them are voice recordings of him talking to Joe Biden. Deputy Director Abbate, does the FBI have 17 voice recordings laying out evidence of a bribery scheme?”
Abbate would not reveal if any of the recordings existed.
Cruz continued to grill Abbate for several more minutes.