Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
2016-2020: D's: Whistle-blowers to be taken serious. Protected. Heard.
2023 - D's: "whistle-blowers"
Whistleblower: Trump made a call threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine unless they declared they were going to investigate Trump’s political opponent.
Transcript of call: Here’s Trump threatening to withhold aid unless an investigation on Biden is announced.
Trump: yes I made the phone call and it was beautiful.
Seems the ire should be directed at the inept repubs’ inability to nail that doddering old fool, Brandon. It’s not like he’s playing 3D chess or anything. And Ruddy makes an appearance. “Nothing but the best, folks.”
The Biden ‘bribery’ allegation slips on more banana peels
Okay, so here’s what we’ve got.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and probably some other people see a document detailing a June 2020 FBI interview of a longtime informant. That informant spoke to a Ukrainian business executive who claimed to have paid bribes of millions of dollars to Joe Biden and his son Hunter at some point in time.
Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) send a letter to the FBI demanding that the document (known as a form FD-1023) be released to the public. For a few weeks, Comer in particular gets performatively mad at the FBI for not releasing the thing, but the bureau, worried about its informant, agrees only to show it to Comer and other members of Congress in private.
There are some other asides to all of this, like Comer demanding that the FBI produce some other documents that no one is suggesting have much significance. But since that initial letter from Comer and Grassley about two months ago, no other evidence of this alleged “bribe” has emerged. And, in fact, on Thursday, the central allegation only got weaker.
We don’t know the identity of the executive with whom the informant spoke at some point before mid-2020. It seems pretty likely, though, that it’s Mykola Zlochevsky, founder of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Burisma, you’ll recall, was at the center of the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, as he tried to defend his own alleged extortion of the Ukrainian government by claiming that, actually, it was Biden who had done so. It was not, which we’ll come back to in a second.
The evidence that the executive was Zlochevsky comes from Comer and other Republicans on the Oversight Committee. Two, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), claimed that the person with whom the informant spoke was Zlochevsky. In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity earlier this month, Comer agreed that the executive was “a high-ranking member or owner of Burisma,” which describes Zlochevsky. On Wednesday, Comer sent a letter requesting that the Treasury Department provide the committee with any reports detailing suspicious financial activity by Burisma or Zlochevsky, among a few other people.
(It’s also useful to note that, at the time of the FD-1023, Zlochevsky was accused of offering a $5 million bribe to anti-corruption officials in Ukraine — the same amount allegedly offered to the Bidens. The Ukrainian government denied that either Biden was involved in that incident.)
If the person who spoke to the informant was, in fact, Zlochevsky, Oversight ranking minority-party member Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) produced a new transcript that effectively (though not entirely) undercuts the claims contained in the 1023.
You will recall that, in 2019, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was actively promoting the idea that the Bidens had engaged in suspect activity related to Burisma. As part of that effort (which contributed to Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine and, subsequently, his impeachment), Giuliani had his aide Lev Parnas contact to a friend of Zlochevsky’s to answer some questions. The responses were previously reported by Politico but hadn’t been seen in their entirety until Raskin included them in a letter to Comer.
“Please detail any contacts you had with VP Joe Biden and his office from 2013 through 2019,” one question asked. “Did Hunter ever facilitate any of those contacts?”
“NO ONE FROM BURISMA EVER HAD ANY CONTACTS WITH VP BIDEN OR PEOPLE WORKING FOR HIM DURING HUNTER BIDEN’S ENGAGEMENT,” came the reply.
“Did VP Biden or his staff assist you or your company in any way with business deals or meetings with world leaders or any other assistance?” another question asked, yielding a terse reply: “NO.”
Of course, we have no way of knowing whether Zlochevsky was being entirely honest in these replies. But, then, that goes for any information he might have given the informant. Should we assume that he was being dishonest to his friend but honest with the informant? Should we assume that, particularly based on the lack of corroborating evidence for the idea that the Bidens were paid large bribes?
There’s a quote from Rudy Giuliani that’s salient here. In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, as Giuliani was pressing to find (or generate) claims about voter fraud, he summarized his predicament to an Arizona lawmaker.
“We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence,” the lawmaker described Giuliani saying during testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
This is the position in which Comer finds himself. He’s got lots of theories, ones that he’s very happy to go on TV to discuss. He just doesn’t have the evidence.
Comer appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning. Host Steve Doocy challenged Comer to explain why he called Biden part of a “crime family.”
“Make it easy for us,” Doocy said, “what was the crime?”
“The crime is trading policy for money,” Comer replied.
“Which policy?” Doocy pressed.
“Well, we’re going to get into that,” Comer replied.
Bear in mind that, the day prior, Comer told a local radio host in New York that there were six Biden policy decisions that Comer alleged had been influenced by foreign contributions. On Fox, though, he largely demurred.
He did point to the Justice Department’s curtailing an initiative aimed at uprooting Chinese spies from American universities, something Comer said happened on “day one” of Biden’s administration. But it wasn’t, as The Washington Post reportedwhen Comer made the same claim last month. It didn’t end until 2022. What’s more, the program wasn’t ended because it targeted possible Chinese espionage but because it cast a net of suspicion over Chinese students broadly, triggering civil liberties concerns. At the time the program was ended, the Justice Department reinforced that broader efforts to stop Chinese spying continued in other forms.
All of this ignores that there’s no evidence Biden took any money from China anyway.
It seems clear that Hunter Biden had some success in parlaying his law degree and his last name into lucrative business deals. Comer and his colleagues have documented some of those deals and how Biden’s uncle and other acquaintances appear to have been included in the profits. What has not been documented, though, is that the president benefited.
Of all of Comer’s efforts to impugn Joe Biden, though, the allegation about a bribe from Ukraine is among the flimsiest. As time passes, one would expect evidence to accrue that it had happened. Instead, evidence is accruing that it didn’t.
Seems the ire should be directed at the inept repubs’ inability to nail that doddering old fool, Brandon. It’s not like he’s playing 3D chess or anything. And Ruddy makes an appearance. “Nothing but the best, folks.”
The Biden ‘bribery’ allegation slips on more banana peels
Okay, so here’s what we’ve got.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and probably some other people see a document detailing a June 2020 FBI interview of a longtime informant. That informant spoke to a Ukrainian business executive who claimed to have paid bribes of millions of dollars to Joe Biden and his son Hunter at some point in time.
Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) send a letter to the FBI demanding that the document (known as a form FD-1023) be released to the public. For a few weeks, Comer in particular gets performatively mad at the FBI for not releasing the thing, but the bureau, worried about its informant, agrees only to show it to Comer and other members of Congress in private.
There are some other asides to all of this, like Comer demanding that the FBI produce some other documents that no one is suggesting have much significance. But since that initial letter from Comer and Grassley about two months ago, no other evidence of this alleged “bribe” has emerged. And, in fact, on Thursday, the central allegation only got weaker.
We don’t know the identity of the executive with whom the informant spoke at some point before mid-2020. It seems pretty likely, though, that it’s Mykola Zlochevsky, founder of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Burisma, you’ll recall, was at the center of the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, as he tried to defend his own alleged extortion of the Ukrainian government by claiming that, actually, it was Biden who had done so. It was not, which we’ll come back to in a second.
The evidence that the executive was Zlochevsky comes from Comer and other Republicans on the Oversight Committee. Two, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), claimed that the person with whom the informant spoke was Zlochevsky. In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity earlier this month, Comer agreed that the executive was “a high-ranking member or owner of Burisma,” which describes Zlochevsky. On Wednesday, Comer sent a letter requesting that the Treasury Department provide the committee with any reports detailing suspicious financial activity by Burisma or Zlochevsky, among a few other people.
(It’s also useful to note that, at the time of the FD-1023, Zlochevsky was accused of offering a $5 million bribe to anti-corruption officials in Ukraine — the same amount allegedly offered to the Bidens. The Ukrainian government denied that either Biden was involved in that incident.)
If the person who spoke to the informant was, in fact, Zlochevsky, Oversight ranking minority-party member Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) produced a new transcript that effectively (though not entirely) undercuts the claims contained in the 1023.
You will recall that, in 2019, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was actively promoting the idea that the Bidens had engaged in suspect activity related to Burisma. As part of that effort (which contributed to Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine and, subsequently, his impeachment), Giuliani had his aide Lev Parnas contact to a friend of Zlochevsky’s to answer some questions. The responses were previously reported by Politico but hadn’t been seen in their entirety until Raskin included them in a letter to Comer.
“Please detail any contacts you had with VP Joe Biden and his office from 2013 through 2019,” one question asked. “Did Hunter ever facilitate any of those contacts?”
“NO ONE FROM BURISMA EVER HAD ANY CONTACTS WITH VP BIDEN OR PEOPLE WORKING FOR HIM DURING HUNTER BIDEN’S ENGAGEMENT,” came the reply.
“Did VP Biden or his staff assist you or your company in any way with business deals or meetings with world leaders or any other assistance?” another question asked, yielding a terse reply: “NO.”
Of course, we have no way of knowing whether Zlochevsky was being entirely honest in these replies. But, then, that goes for any information he might have given the informant. Should we assume that he was being dishonest to his friend but honest with the informant? Should we assume that, particularly based on the lack of corroborating evidence for the idea that the Bidens were paid large bribes?
There’s a quote from Rudy Giuliani that’s salient here. In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, as Giuliani was pressing to find (or generate) claims about voter fraud, he summarized his predicament to an Arizona lawmaker.
“We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence,” the lawmaker described Giuliani saying during testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
This is the position in which Comer finds himself. He’s got lots of theories, ones that he’s very happy to go on TV to discuss. He just doesn’t have the evidence.
Comer appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning. Host Steve Doocy challenged Comer to explain why he called Biden part of a “crime family.”
“Make it easy for us,” Doocy said, “what was the crime?”
“The crime is trading policy for money,” Comer replied.
“Which policy?” Doocy pressed.
“Well, we’re going to get into that,” Comer replied.
Bear in mind that, the day prior, Comer told a local radio host in New York that there were six Biden policy decisions that Comer alleged had been influenced by foreign contributions. On Fox, though, he largely demurred.
He did point to the Justice Department’s curtailing an initiative aimed at uprooting Chinese spies from American universities, something Comer said happened on “day one” of Biden’s administration. But it wasn’t, as The Washington Post reportedwhen Comer made the same claim last month. It didn’t end until 2022. What’s more, the program wasn’t ended because it targeted possible Chinese espionage but because it cast a net of suspicion over Chinese students broadly, triggering civil liberties concerns. At the time the program was ended, the Justice Department reinforced that broader efforts to stop Chinese spying continued in other forms.
All of this ignores that there’s no evidence Biden took any money from China anyway.
It seems clear that Hunter Biden had some success in parlaying his law degree and his last name into lucrative business deals. Comer and his colleagues have documented some of those deals and how Biden’s uncle and other acquaintances appear to have been included in the profits. What has not been documented, though, is that the president benefited.
Of all of Comer’s efforts to impugn Joe Biden, though, the allegation about a bribe from Ukraine is among the flimsiest. As time passes, one would expect evidence to accrue that it had happened. Instead, evidence is accruing that it didn’t.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
For those who may want to see the details. I particularly like Hunter’s purported threat. Sounds like B movie dialogue written by POOTWH. And does anyone really think a Chinese businessman or government official would be “threatened” by such a statement? Like big bad Brandon would nuke them or something. What a joke, that “whistle blower.” How does an IRS investigator come into possession of Hunter’s WhatsApp texts? Oh right, the laptop!
If you want to see what the weaponization of government looks like, read Hunter’s attorney’s letter above. It concludes thus:
Chairman Smith, it is easy when a committee does not operate with fairness and thoroughness and an adherence to rules and procedures to forward a false political narrative. You have done that, and it appears that you (joined now by other Republican chairs who have also been shown to shoot first—sometimes at their own feet—and aim second) will continue to do that. We can only hope that the specious methods you are using, some of which are laid out in this letter, will inform the public of the right way things should be done.
Prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case denies retaliating against IRS agent who talked to House GOP
By Colleen Long
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal prosecutor leading the investigation of President Joe Biden's son Hunter is pushing back against claims that he was blocked from pursuing criminal charges in Los Angeles and Washington and denies retaliating against an IRS official who disclosed details about the case.
In a two-page letter to House Republicans on Friday, U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware defended the lengthy investigation into Hunter Biden's financial dealings that ended last month with a plea with the Justice Department that likely spares Biden from time behind bars.
Weiss, who was named to that post by President Donald Trump and was kept on by the Biden administration, said in his letter that the department “did not retaliate” against Gary Shapley, an IRS agent who said the prosecutor helped block Shapley's job promotion after the tax agency employee had reached out to congressional investigators about the Biden case.
Shapley is one of two IRS employees interviewed by Republicans pursuing investigations into nearly every facet of the younger Biden’s business dealings.
One of the investigating committees, the House Ways and Means Committee, voted to publicly disclose congressional testimony from the IRS employees shortly after the plea deal was announced June 20.
The testimony from Shapley and an unidentified agent detailed what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
It is unclear whether the conflict they describe amounts to internal disagreement about how to pursue the investigation or a pattern of interference and preferential treatment. Justice Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid influencing the outcome.
Shapley also claimed that Weiss asked the Justice Department in March 2020 to be provided special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including Washington, and California, but was denied.
In response to that claim, the department said Weiss has “full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.”
In his letter, Weiss said he was assured by department that if he sought to bring charges in a venue other than Delaware, he would be granted special status to do so. Generally, U.S. attorneys are limited to their own jurisdictions when bringing criminal charges.
Biden, 53, reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses. The plea deal would also avert prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as Biden adheres to conditions agreed to in court. He will appear in a Delaware court later this month.
Last week, leaders of the Republican-controlled House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees asked in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland for nine officials from the Justice Department and two from the FBI to address the IRS employees' claims.
Weiss said in his letter to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, that he would be willing to discuss such topics with congressional officials, but reiterated the case is an active criminal investigation and there's little else he can divulge at this time.
Republicans have focused much attention on an unverified tip to the FBI that alleged a bribery scheme involving Joe Biden when he was vice president. The unsubstantiated claim, which first emerged in 2019, was that Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor in order to stop an investigation into Burisma, an oil-and-gas company where Hunter Biden was on the board.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called the investigations by Republicans across multiple congressional committees an “obsession.”
“Since taking the majority in 2023, various leaders of the House and its committees have discarded the established protocols of Congress, rules of conduct, and even the law in what can only be called an obsession with attacking the Biden family,” he wrote.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I heard that Hunter has been flying blow into Arkansas and Delaware for decades, suppling Hillary and the Brandon crime family. Been protected by the deep state the whole time. Obama, reverend Al, Jesse Jackson, Cornell west, John Lewis are/were part of the distribution network.
I heard that Hunter has been flying blow into Arkansas and Delaware for decades, suppling Hillary and the Brandon crime family. Been protected by the deep state the whole time. Obama, reverend Al, Jesse Jackson, Cornell west, John Lewis are/were part of the distribution network.
I heard the cocaine was planted at the White House by project veritas
I heard that Hunter has been flying blow into Arkansas and Delaware for decades, suppling Hillary and the Brandon crime family. Been protected by the deep state the whole time. Obama, reverend Al, Jesse Jackson, Cornell west, John Lewis are/were part of the distribution network.
I heard the cocaine was planted at the White House by project veritas
Top Republicans are gearing up to investigate the Hunter Biden case. Here's what to know.
By Farnoush Amiri
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republicans who lead three key House committees are joining forces to probe the Justice Department’s handling of charges against Hunter Biden after making sweeping claims about misconduct at the agency.
Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees opened a joint investigation into the federal case into President Joe Biden's youngest son days after it was announced last month that he will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement with the Justice Department.
Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Jason Smith of Missouri have since issued a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior officials at the Justice Department, FBI and Internal Revenue Service as they investigate what they claim is improper interference. Republicans have also requested a special counsel review of supposed retaliation against the whistleblowers who came forward with the claims.
The congressional inquiry was launched after the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Smith, voted last month to publicly disclose hundreds of pages of testimony from the IRS employees who worked on the Hunter Biden case.
The transcripts of Greg Shapley and an unidentified agent detail what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.
The Justice Department has denied the whistleblower claims and said repeatedly that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, had “full authority” of the case.
Here’s what to know about the emerging investigation.
INVESTIGATING IRS WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS
In April, the first IRS whistleblower, Shapley, came forward when his attorney reached out to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa to say that his client had information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of what was then an ongoing criminal investigation related to Hunter Biden.
Smith, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, who has jurisdiction over the IRS, brought in Shapley in late May for an hourslong interview, where he described several roadblocks that he and several other IRS agents on the case encountered when trying to interview individuals relevant to the investigation or issue search warrants.
The whistleblowers insist their testimony reflects a pattern of inference and preferential treatment in the Hunter Biden case and not just disagreement with their superiors about what investigative steps to take. Justice Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome.
The most disputed claim from the whistleblowers is that Weiss — first appointed by former President Donald Trump and kept on by the Biden administration — asked the Justice Department in March 2022 to be provided special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including Washington, D.C., and California, but was denied.
A second IRS whistleblower, who asked the committee to keep his identity secret, described his persistent frustrations with the way the Hunter Biden case was handled, dating back to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. He said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and delved deeply into his personal life and finances.
INVESTIGATING CLAIMS OF RETALIATION
Both men have testified that they faced retaliation at the IRS after coming forward with concerns about the handling of the Hunter Biden case. Shapley, who was a career supervisory agent, told the committee that Weiss helped block his job promotion after the tax agency employee reached out to congressional investigators about the Biden case.
The second unidentified whistleblower said he was taken off the Hunter Biden investigation around the same time as Shapley, who was his supervisor. Though he was informed of the decision by officials at the IRS, the second whistleblower believes his removal was actually ordered by officials in the Justice Department. Neither of the men provided lawmakers evidence that was the case, instead citing what they had witnessed internally as they pushed for various investigative steps.
The three Republican chairmen, along with Sens. Grassley and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, sent a letter to the Justice Department asking for an immediate review of the retaliation claims.
“The importance of protecting whistleblowers from unlawful retaliation and informing whistleblowers about their rights under the law cannot be understated. After all, it is the law,” the lawmakers wrote.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PUSHBACK
The Justice Department has denied the allegations from the whistleblowers, saying that Weiss has had “full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland also rebuffed the idea that Weiss, a veteran prosecutor, asked to be designated as a special counsel.
“The only person who has the authority to make someone a special counsel, or refuse to make them a special counsel, is the attorney general,” Garland told reporters last month. He added, “Mr. Weiss never made that request.”
In a June 30 letter, Weiss also further denied the claims by telling House Republicans that the Justice Department “did not retaliate” against Shapley. He also said he was assured by the department that if he sought to bring charges against Hunter Biden in a venue other than Delaware, he would be granted special status to do so. Generally, U.S. attorneys are limited to their own jurisdictions when bringing criminal charges.
NEXT STEPS
The three Republican chairmen have provided a deadline of Thursday for the department to begin scheduling nearly a dozen individuals for transcribed interviews. They have said that if the deadline is not met, they will resort to issuing congressional subpoenas to force cooperation.
Weiss said in his recent letter that he would be willing to discuss such topics with congressional officials, but reiterated that he cannot divulge information about the Hunter Biden case because it is an active criminal investigation.
Garland has said publicly that he would not stop Weiss from testifying before Congress. “I would support Mr. Weiss explaining or testifying on these matters when he deems it appropriate,” the attorney general said.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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The Juggler
Behind that bush over there. Posts: 47,298
Gosh. These "whistleblowers" never quite seem to work out for the maga republicans, do they?
Comments
Hopefully all this investigating of Hunter will explain why he got $2B from the Saudis.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
2016-2020: D's:
Whistle-blowers to be taken serious. Protected. Heard.
2023 - D's: "whistle-blowers"
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
here's a whistle blower for you
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Seems the ire should be directed at the inept repubs’ inability to nail that doddering old fool, Brandon. It’s not like he’s playing 3D chess or anything. And Ruddy makes an appearance. “Nothing but the best, folks.”
The Biden ‘bribery’ allegation slips on more banana peels
Okay, so here’s what we’ve got.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and probably some other people see a document detailing a June 2020 FBI interview of a longtime informant. That informant spoke to a Ukrainian business executive who claimed to have paid bribes of millions of dollars to Joe Biden and his son Hunter at some point in time.
Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) send a letter to the FBI demanding that the document (known as a form FD-1023) be released to the public. For a few weeks, Comer in particular gets performatively mad at the FBI for not releasing the thing, but the bureau, worried about its informant, agrees only to show it to Comer and other members of Congress in private.
There are some other asides to all of this, like Comer demanding that the FBI produce some other documents that no one is suggesting have much significance. But since that initial letter from Comer and Grassley about two months ago, no other evidence of this alleged “bribe” has emerged. And, in fact, on Thursday, the central allegation only got weaker.
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We don’t know the identity of the executive with whom the informant spoke at some point before mid-2020. It seems pretty likely, though, that it’s Mykola Zlochevsky, founder of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Burisma, you’ll recall, was at the center of the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, as he tried to defend his own alleged extortion of the Ukrainian government by claiming that, actually, it was Biden who had done so. It was not, which we’ll come back to in a second.
The evidence that the executive was Zlochevsky comes from Comer and other Republicans on the Oversight Committee. Two, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), claimed that the person with whom the informant spoke was Zlochevsky. In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity earlier this month, Comer agreed that the executive was “a high-ranking member or owner of Burisma,” which describes Zlochevsky. On Wednesday, Comer sent a letter requesting that the Treasury Department provide the committee with any reports detailing suspicious financial activity by Burisma or Zlochevsky, among a few other people.
(It’s also useful to note that, at the time of the FD-1023, Zlochevsky was accused of offering a $5 million bribe to anti-corruption officials in Ukraine — the same amount allegedly offered to the Bidens. The Ukrainian government denied that either Biden was involved in that incident.)
If the person who spoke to the informant was, in fact, Zlochevsky, Oversight ranking minority-party member Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) produced a new transcript that effectively (though not entirely) undercuts the claims contained in the 1023.
You will recall that, in 2019, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was actively promoting the idea that the Bidens had engaged in suspect activity related to Burisma. As part of that effort (which contributed to Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine and, subsequently, his impeachment), Giuliani had his aide Lev Parnas contact to a friend of Zlochevsky’s to answer some questions. The responses were previously reported by Politico but hadn’t been seen in their entirety until Raskin included them in a letter to Comer.
“Please detail any contacts you had with VP Joe Biden and his office from 2013 through 2019,” one question asked. “Did Hunter ever facilitate any of those contacts?”
“NO ONE FROM BURISMA EVER HAD ANY CONTACTS WITH VP BIDEN OR PEOPLE WORKING FOR HIM DURING HUNTER BIDEN’S ENGAGEMENT,” came the reply.
“Did VP Biden or his staff assist you or your company in any way with business deals or meetings with world leaders or any other assistance?” another question asked, yielding a terse reply: “NO.”
Of course, we have no way of knowing whether Zlochevsky was being entirely honest in these replies. But, then, that goes for any information he might have given the informant. Should we assume that he was being dishonest to his friend but honest with the informant? Should we assume that, particularly based on the lack of corroborating evidence for the idea that the Bidens were paid large bribes?
There’s a quote from Rudy Giuliani that’s salient here. In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, as Giuliani was pressing to find (or generate) claims about voter fraud, he summarized his predicament to an Arizona lawmaker.
“We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence,” the lawmaker described Giuliani saying during testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
This is the position in which Comer finds himself. He’s got lots of theories, ones that he’s very happy to go on TV to discuss. He just doesn’t have the evidence.
Comer appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning. Host Steve Doocy challenged Comer to explain why he called Biden part of a “crime family.”
“Make it easy for us,” Doocy said, “what was the crime?”
“The crime is trading policy for money,” Comer replied.
“Which policy?” Doocy pressed.
“Well, we’re going to get into that,” Comer replied.
Bear in mind that, the day prior, Comer told a local radio host in New York that there were six Biden policy decisions that Comer alleged had been influenced by foreign contributions. On Fox, though, he largely demurred.
He did point to the Justice Department’s curtailing an initiative aimed at uprooting Chinese spies from American universities, something Comer said happened on “day one” of Biden’s administration. But it wasn’t, as The Washington Post reportedwhen Comer made the same claim last month. It didn’t end until 2022. What’s more, the program wasn’t ended because it targeted possible Chinese espionage but because it cast a net of suspicion over Chinese students broadly, triggering civil liberties concerns. At the time the program was ended, the Justice Department reinforced that broader efforts to stop Chinese spying continued in other forms.
All of this ignores that there’s no evidence Biden took any money from China anyway.
It seems clear that Hunter Biden had some success in parlaying his law degree and his last name into lucrative business deals. Comer and his colleagues have documented some of those deals and how Biden’s uncle and other acquaintances appear to have been included in the profits. What has not been documented, though, is that the president benefited.
Of all of Comer’s efforts to impugn Joe Biden, though, the allegation about a bribe from Ukraine is among the flimsiest. As time passes, one would expect evidence to accrue that it had happened. Instead, evidence is accruing that it didn’t.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/29/biden-comer-giuliani-ukraine/
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23865332-20230630_letter_to_chairman_smith_re_ways___means_june_22_release_of_transcripts_and_proposed_actions
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Chairman Smith, it is easy when a committee does not operate with fairness and thoroughness and an adherence to rules and procedures to forward a false political narrative. You have done that, and it appears that you (joined now by other Republican chairs who have also been shown to shoot first—sometimes at their own feet—and aim second) will continue to do that. We can only hope that the specious methods you are using, some of which are laid out in this letter, will inform the public of the right way things should be done.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal prosecutor leading the investigation of President Joe Biden's son Hunter is pushing back against claims that he was blocked from pursuing criminal charges in Los Angeles and Washington and denies retaliating against an IRS official who disclosed details about the case.
In a two-page letter to House Republicans on Friday, U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware defended the lengthy investigation into Hunter Biden's financial dealings that ended last month with a plea with the Justice Department that likely spares Biden from time behind bars.
Weiss, who was named to that post by President Donald Trump and was kept on by the Biden administration, said in his letter that the department “did not retaliate” against Gary Shapley, an IRS agent who said the prosecutor helped block Shapley's job promotion after the tax agency employee had reached out to congressional investigators about the Biden case.
JOE BIDEN
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Shapley is one of two IRS employees interviewed by Republicans pursuing investigations into nearly every facet of the younger Biden’s business dealings.
One of the investigating committees, the House Ways and Means Committee, voted to publicly disclose congressional testimony from the IRS employees shortly after the plea deal was announced June 20.
The testimony from Shapley and an unidentified agent detailed what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
It is unclear whether the conflict they describe amounts to internal disagreement about how to pursue the investigation or a pattern of interference and preferential treatment. Justice Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid influencing the outcome.
Shapley also claimed that Weiss asked the Justice Department in March 2020 to be provided special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including Washington, and California, but was denied.
In response to that claim, the department said Weiss has “full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.”
In his letter, Weiss said he was assured by department that if he sought to bring charges in a venue other than Delaware, he would be granted special status to do so. Generally, U.S. attorneys are limited to their own jurisdictions when bringing criminal charges.
Biden, 53, reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses. The plea deal would also avert prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as Biden adheres to conditions agreed to in court. He will appear in a Delaware court later this month.
Last week, leaders of the Republican-controlled House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees asked in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland for nine officials from the Justice Department and two from the FBI to address the IRS employees' claims.
Weiss said in his letter to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, that he would be willing to discuss such topics with congressional officials, but reiterated the case is an active criminal investigation and there's little else he can divulge at this time.
Republicans have focused much attention on an unverified tip to the FBI that alleged a bribery scheme involving Joe Biden when he was vice president. The unsubstantiated claim, which first emerged in 2019, was that Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor in order to stop an investigation into Burisma, an oil-and-gas company where Hunter Biden was on the board.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called the investigations by Republicans across multiple congressional committees an “obsession.”
“Since taking the majority in 2023, various leaders of the House and its committees have discarded the established protocols of Congress, rules of conduct, and even the law in what can only be called an obsession with attacking the Biden family,” he wrote.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
=
It's Hunter's cocaine
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republicans who lead three key House committees are joining forces to probe the Justice Department’s handling of charges against Hunter Biden after making sweeping claims about misconduct at the agency.
Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees opened a joint investigation into the federal case into President Joe Biden's youngest son days after it was announced last month that he will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement with the Justice Department.
Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Jason Smith of Missouri have since issued a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior officials at the Justice Department, FBI and Internal Revenue Service as they investigate what they claim is improper interference. Republicans have also requested a special counsel review of supposed retaliation against the whistleblowers who came forward with the claims.
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The congressional inquiry was launched after the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Smith, voted last month to publicly disclose hundreds of pages of testimony from the IRS employees who worked on the Hunter Biden case.
The transcripts of Greg Shapley and an unidentified agent detail what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.
The Justice Department has denied the whistleblower claims and said repeatedly that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, had “full authority” of the case.
Here’s what to know about the emerging investigation.
INVESTIGATING IRS WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS
In April, the first IRS whistleblower, Shapley, came forward when his attorney reached out to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa to say that his client had information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of what was then an ongoing criminal investigation related to Hunter Biden.
Smith, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, who has jurisdiction over the IRS, brought in Shapley in late May for an hourslong interview, where he described several roadblocks that he and several other IRS agents on the case encountered when trying to interview individuals relevant to the investigation or issue search warrants.
The whistleblowers insist their testimony reflects a pattern of inference and preferential treatment in the Hunter Biden case and not just disagreement with their superiors about what investigative steps to take. Justice Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome.
The most disputed claim from the whistleblowers is that Weiss — first appointed by former President Donald Trump and kept on by the Biden administration — asked the Justice Department in March 2022 to be provided special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including Washington, D.C., and California, but was denied.
A second IRS whistleblower, who asked the committee to keep his identity secret, described his persistent frustrations with the way the Hunter Biden case was handled, dating back to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. He said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and delved deeply into his personal life and finances.
INVESTIGATING CLAIMS OF RETALIATION
Both men have testified that they faced retaliation at the IRS after coming forward with concerns about the handling of the Hunter Biden case. Shapley, who was a career supervisory agent, told the committee that Weiss helped block his job promotion after the tax agency employee reached out to congressional investigators about the Biden case.
The second unidentified whistleblower said he was taken off the Hunter Biden investigation around the same time as Shapley, who was his supervisor. Though he was informed of the decision by officials at the IRS, the second whistleblower believes his removal was actually ordered by officials in the Justice Department. Neither of the men provided lawmakers evidence that was the case, instead citing what they had witnessed internally as they pushed for various investigative steps.
The three Republican chairmen, along with Sens. Grassley and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, sent a letter to the Justice Department asking for an immediate review of the retaliation claims.
“The importance of protecting whistleblowers from unlawful retaliation and informing whistleblowers about their rights under the law cannot be understated. After all, it is the law,” the lawmakers wrote.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PUSHBACK
The Justice Department has denied the allegations from the whistleblowers, saying that Weiss has had “full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland also rebuffed the idea that Weiss, a veteran prosecutor, asked to be designated as a special counsel.
“The only person who has the authority to make someone a special counsel, or refuse to make them a special counsel, is the attorney general,” Garland told reporters last month. He added, “Mr. Weiss never made that request.”
In a June 30 letter, Weiss also further denied the claims by telling House Republicans that the Justice Department “did not retaliate” against Shapley. He also said he was assured by the department that if he sought to bring charges against Hunter Biden in a venue other than Delaware, he would be granted special status to do so. Generally, U.S. attorneys are limited to their own jurisdictions when bringing criminal charges.
NEXT STEPS
The three Republican chairmen have provided a deadline of Thursday for the department to begin scheduling nearly a dozen individuals for transcribed interviews. They have said that if the deadline is not met, they will resort to issuing congressional subpoenas to force cooperation.
Weiss said in his recent letter that he would be willing to discuss such topics with congressional officials, but reiterated that he cannot divulge information about the Hunter Biden case because it is an active criminal investigation.
Garland has said publicly that he would not stop Weiss from testifying before Congress. “I would support Mr. Weiss explaining or testifying on these matters when he deems it appropriate,” the attorney general said.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
oooh so the "whistleblowers" made false statements to Congress?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14