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Hal Turner claimed in a late September 2020 article from the Hal Turner Radio Show that:

In an utterly stunning development for US politics, Burisma Gas Holdings Corp of Ukraine admitted in court today they BRIBED U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

The only issue left is how much the bribes were. At present, Burisma disputes a claim that the Bribe amounted to $900,000. There are indications the amount may be far greater!

This claim has been picked up by others. For example, One America Network's Christina Bobb tweeted:

Burisma admits to bribing Joe Biden, but disputes the amount paid, in Ukrainian criminal court. Prosecutors allege a $900,000 lump sum cash payment. Burisma says, yes, we bribed Joe Biden, but it was a different amount.

This claim seems suspect.

It is from a news outlet I don't recognize. This certainly does not make the claim false, but certainly is worthy of further investigation.

Secondly, and more importantly, this article doesn't seem to cite any sources. The closest thing I could find to a source is this article on Libs are Nuts which has pictures of an official-looking document. But this document doesn't seem to verify the underlying claim at all.

Finally, all the claims I can see appear to be from Joe Biden's enemies--people who would have ulterior motives motives to post something like this.

Can the claim that Burisma confessed/admitted in a Ukrainian court that it bribed Joe Biden be verified from independent sources? Ukrainian sources are preferred, but I suppose are not necessary if you can prove that the source is authoritative on the subject.

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  • For other people who can't get past the rather unwieldy web-design, the words "has revealed" after Andriy Derkach are the link.
    – Oddthinking
    Oct 25, 2020 at 6:14
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    Note that the document does not make the claim. It is a list of questions that someone wants to ask. Its authenticity isn't relevant. The claim comes in the form of a quote from a Facebook page. Closing just while we clarify the purpose of the question. I think it should be "Is this alleged Facebook claim authentic and correct?"
    – Oddthinking
    Oct 25, 2020 at 6:25
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    Also, while I'm all in favour of giving people the benefit of the doubt, a site whose very name is a puerile political insult doesn't strike me as a good source for unbiased and factual information.
    – Shadur
    Oct 25, 2020 at 13:18
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    @Shadur Yes, that is another good point. I don't think it is a good source of unbiased information. Hence why I'm here.
    – user53220
    Oct 25, 2020 at 20:28
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    Court testimonies are transcripted in all the countries, if those claims have any base, it should be pretty straighforward for those doing that claim to add those transcripts and/or link to them.
    – bradbury9
    Oct 26, 2020 at 8:00

1 Answer 1

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The claim seems to have originated from Andrii Derkach and was then spread by Giuliani.

Senate Republicans have investigated the alleged corruption around Hunter Biden. The key finding is that Hunter Bidens presence in Ukraine may have made it "awkward" for US officials.

They rejected to investigate the claim about a 900k bribe of Joe Biden by Derkach because they deem it unreliable as he is part of a disinformation campaign:

The Chairmen repeatedly rejected claims that they had any engagement with Derkach. In August 2020, Derkach was publicly identified by the IC as a proponent of a foreign-sourced influence campaign to influence the 2020 election. He was later sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury for the same activity. 240 Chairman Grassley and Chairman Johnson praised the Treasury for imposing those sanctions. 241 [...]

Since the offices of Chairman Johnson and Chairman Grassley did not receive, and were unaware of, the information that Derkach had allegedly sent, it is impossible that Derkach’s efforts could have shaped the Committees’ investigation in any way. Furthermore, it should now be clear that Derkach’s core claims are in no way a part of the Committees’ investigative work. For example, according to media reports, Derkach is responsible for spreading allegations that Burisma made direct payments to Joe Biden in the amount of $900,000, which were allegedly funneled to Biden through his son’s consulting firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, and marked for “consultative services.” 242 This claim about direct payments made to Joe Biden is not evaluated in the Committees’ report of investigation, nor has it ever been cited as a predicate for any of the Committees’ information requests.

Apart from the word of Derkach - an active Russian agent who collaborated with Giuliani to interfer in the 2020 election - there seems to be no actual evidence of any attempt to bribe Joe biden.

The "official-looking document" linked by "Libs are Nuts" is not a statement by a court or Burisma, but an inquiry by disgraced former prosecutor Viktor Shokin.

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    +1; also note Bradbury's comment on the question itself re: court transcripts, might be worth adding as additional negative evidence.
    – Shadur
    Oct 26, 2020 at 11:51
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    Taking another look at this answer, I think it is a good answer, but the reason I didn't accept it before--and that still applies now--is it doesn't seem to address the Ukrainian court side of it. If Burisma did admit this in a court, then there should be a transcript of this. Obviously you can't add something that doesn't exist, but it it'd be nice to know you looked for it.
    – user53220
    Nov 2, 2020 at 1:35
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    @Chipster I did look for it, but I don't speak ukrainian, so my search was limited to English sources. I did not find any English sources linking or citing it (which I would expect if this was true), but that didn't seem relevant enough to include in an answer.
    – tim
    Nov 2, 2020 at 8:07
  • 1. get google translate extention. 2. write query. 3. translate using google to ukranian. 4. search + translate using plugin. Very simple.
    – Outsider
    Feb 19, 2021 at 2:02

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