Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings paid Hunter Biden a lucrative salary despite believing him to be stupider than a dog, according to a newly released FBI file shedding light on the nature of his work there.

Republicans have long criticized Hunter Biden's cushy gig at Burisma as corrupt, noting he had no relevant expertise or skills.

Burisma was none too impressed either, with owner Mykola Zlochevsky telling an FBI source that his pet dog was more intelligent than the vice president's "stupid" son. But the company kept Hunter on Burisma's board so everything would be "okay," Zlochevsky said.

“Zlochevsky made some comment that although Hunter Biden ‘was stupid, and his (Zlochevsky’s) dog was smarter,’ Zlochevsky needed to keep Hunter Biden (on Burisma’s board) ‘so everything will be okay,’" the file said.

Hunter's real work exposed

Joe Biden would "take care of" any issues arising from prosecutor Viktor Shokin's criminal investigation into the company, Zlochevsky said. Another executive said Hunter Biden was specifically hired "to ‘protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.’"

Biden's father notoriously bragged about pressuring Ukraine to fire Shokin. Biden's defenders have long claimed the issue had nothing to do with Biden's business interests, but that does not appear to be how Burisma viewed the matter.

The quotes were included in an FBI file prepared in June 2020 that Republicans released last week.

The FBI memo contains more damning evidence of Hunter's role as a bag man, with Zlochevsky referring to "the big guy," a notorious nickname that has been linked with Hunter's father.

“Zlochevsky responded he did not send any funds directly to the ‘Big Guy’ (which [the FBI source] understood was a reference to Joe Biden)," the file says.

Shocker...

Zlochevsky also said that he was "coerced" to pay $10 million to Biden and his son, and that he had voice recordings to prove it.

Joe Biden met with a different Burisma executive, Vadym Pozharskyi, for dinner in 2015.

Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter's who worked at Burisma, is expected to tell Congress this week that Hunter put his dad on the phone with business partners dozens of times, the New York Post reported.

The Biden family's critics will not be stunned to learn that Hunter Biden was not being compensated for expert legal wisdom. But the White House has continued to deny any evidence of wrongdoing by the president as nothing but a smear.

“It’s clear that congressional Republicans are dead-set on playing shameless, dishonest politics and refuse to let truth get in the way," the White House said.