Democratic Congressman Reveals the Fatal Flaw in GOP's Biden Investigation
By: Tori Otten (The New Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
If you're claiming someone has all the evidence, that person should probably agree with you.
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A Democratic representative on Wednesday revealed the fatal flaw in Republicans' latest attempt to smear Joe Biden: their supposed informant has already debunked their so-called evidence.
House Republicans have accused the Biden family of corruption for months but have been unable to provide any actual evidence linking Biden or his son Hunter to any wrongdoing. Most recently, House members were allowed to see an FBI document, which the GOP claims includes audio recordings of Biden and Hunter Biden accepting a bribe.
During an Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Democratic Representative Daniel Goldman said he had been eager to see the FD 10-23, a form the FBI uses to note unverified information from confidential sources. But he soon realized that the document was "just a three-year-old secondhand, hearsay, uncorroborated rehashing of Rudy Giuliani's bogus allegations that he got from corrupt Ukrainian officials."
Giuliani and Donald Trump first pushed the conspiracy that the Biden family accepted a $10 million bribe to remove former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in 2016 to stop a probe into Hunter Biden's role at the oil company Burisma Holdings. Several Republican lawmakers say that the FBI form they saw last week not only mentions this bribe, but that a Burisma executive has audio recordings of Biden and Hunter Biden accepting the money. Both Anna Paulina Luna and Marjorie Taylor Greene said that executive is Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky.
This claim has been repeatedly debunked by multiple State Department and intelligence experts on Russia and Ukraine.
But Goldman highlighted the main flaw in Republicans' argument: "You know who else also debunked these allegations? Mykola Zlochevsky," the same man Republicans claim has the secret incriminating audio recordings.
When Zlochevsky was asked by Politico in 2020 whether Biden had ever assisted Burisma while he was vice president, he said simply, "No." Zlochevsky also said that "no one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him" while his son was on the company board.
Goldman also pointed out that the FBI, alongside a U.S. attorney appointed by then-President Donald Trump, had reviewed the bribery accusation when it was made in 2020 and found it to be unsubstantiated.
Republicans, led by Oversight Chair James Comer, have insisted that Biden is guilty of corruption, despite repeatedly admitting that they have no evidence, they don't know if their information is legitimate, and they don't even really care if the accusations are accurate. Comer barely seems to know how many supposed informants he has, but he still brings up the investigation every chance he gets.
"Chairman Comer has asked, 'Why is this committee the only committee that's investigating him?' And that's the right question: Why?" Goldman said. "Because everybody else who's looked at it has found these allegations to be completely bogus. So let's move on."
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"just a three-year-old secondhand, hearsay, uncorroborated rehashing of Rudy Giuliani's bogus allegations that he got from corrupt Ukrainian officials."
Well, if this was true, then why did the FBI have to be beaten into submission about handing over an unredacted duplicate of it? You can't really believe that Biden and associates and family is clean and pure after a half century of sucking on the public teat?
How do you know a politician is lying? When their lips are moving.
How do you know when a Democrat is lying? Just assume they are. They always are. The last seven years and counting prove that Democrats and truth have nothing to do with each other.
The narrative that Giuliani is the source of the FD 10-23 form has been repeated debunked; so stop trying to spin it as if there is any damn connection!
As for Mykola Zlochevsky why would he lie about having incriminating evidence against Brandon? It's not like Brandon isn't in control of the FBI, CIA, DOJ, IRS and other government alphabet soup department that could make his like a living hell. It isn't like the FBI and DOJ have a history of hunting down and punishing whistleblowers that come out against Brandon.
Prove it. The material was turned over to the DA that is investigating Hunter Biden. There have been zero leaks from that investigation. As in zip, zero, zilch, none, nada. Almost as if it never existed. Rather like the special prosecutor appointed to investigate Brandon's mishandling of classified documents. See a pattern here? So if this Democrat has information from that investigation- then he needs to be charged.
The Republican investigations of Biden have been going on for many months now, and they have produced NOTHING. When are you going to wonder why that is?
More hypocrisy, i'm shocked! Muellers investigation was what? 22 months with the full resources of the FBI and DOJ. Schiff investigation went what? 2 years, but the republicans need to stop after many months. Laughable if it wasn't so damn predictable.
I honestly can't hold Joe responsible, he is to fucking senile and/or stupid to know what is going on.
There were over 100 instances of contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign. That is why it was investigated. That "evidence" existed before Mueller even started. What is the evidence that Biden committed a crime? Rudy Giuliani? lol. The guy who is being sued for lying about voter fraud?
Your ignorance of the evidence doesn't mean it doesn't exist, maybe it is being held with Adam Shits evidence and that's why you don't think it exists.
There are multiple instances of Biden family getting pay-offs. how much for the Big Guy will hopefully come to light.
Everyone knows If a guy Denies committing a crime to the press, he’s innocent.
Innuendo is a butt plug that redirects shyte to exit the opposite orifice ... to the duped partisan it is marketed as
'We-Got-M-Now' ambrosia ... garnish with sprinkles.
Yeah, but....the pesky evidence just keeps piling up, can't be refuted, debunked, or disproven, and won't go away
What is reported to be 'evidence' does but so far it has a similar reek of voter fraud 'evidence'. It feeds the fanatical partisan desire for heads atop poles.
If you are going to go down that road then you will have to go down a similar road that leads to the Kushner/Trump family raking in far more millions in dealings with the Saudis.
Deflection fail, For the Saudis to buy influence trump would have to actually be in office, Hunters payoff to the big guy were while Biden was serving.
Maybe you meant Chinese patents?
Unless you have seeded this article, you do not get to decide.
No, I wasn't talking about you.
The article also mentions Trump appointed attorneys investigating and failing (no surprise there). Looks like you only read what you wanted to. No surprise there.
Republicans Admit They ‘Don’t Know’ if Biden Bribery Tapes ‘Really Exist’
Amid Trump’s legal woes, right-wingers have run wild with claims of “audio tapes” proving Biden took bribes. But Republicans now confess they have no clue about it.
Photo composite by The Daily Beast/Wikimedia Commons
In recent weeks, and especially since former President Donald Trump was arraigned on federal charges of willfully mishandling classified documents, Republicans and right-wing media have been running wild with unsubstantiated claims about a foreign bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden.
The story really grew legs in the conservative media ecosphere this week when Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) hyped up the potential existence of “audio tapes” proving Biden accepted a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian energy company while he was vice president. Citing an FD-1023 , an FBI document memorializing a tip from a confidential source, Grassley noted that a source told the feds in 2020 that a Burisma executive claimed to be in possession of 17 recordings of Biden and his son Hunter discussing the criminal scheme.
“According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden,” Grassley said from the Senate floor on Monday. “These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.”
He added: “So, as I’ve repeatedly asked since going public with the existence of the 1023, what, if anything, has the Justice Department and FBI done to investigate?”
Yet, while top GOP lawmakers have breathlessly promoted these purported tapes as an absolute bombshell proving the corruption of the president and his family, they’ve simultaneously acknowledged that these recordings may not exist at all and could be “just a bluff.”
At the same time, despite his colleagues being forced to admit there may not be any recordings, Grassley has expressed hope that Trump is proud of him for pushing so hard for a Biden probe. “Well I hope he thinks I’m doing good work,” Grassley said on a conservative podcast on Wednesday. “I’d like to have him think that of my oversight work.”
However, Grassley also told Fox News earlier this month that “it’s not for me to make a judgment about whether these accusations are accurate or not,” adding that it’s his “job to make sure the FBI is doing their job.”
Meanwhile, during an appearance on right-wing talk radio show Conservative Circus , Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was asked by the host whether or not the FBI ever “bothered to listen to the tapes,” prompting Johnson to point out that this was secondhand information given to the bureau.
“Well again, we don’t know really if the tapes exist, we just don’t know that, whether this was just a bluff on the part of whoever the executive was,” the Wisconsin lawmaker said on Wednesday.
This followed up a Tuesday interview on the Vicki McKenna Show in which Johnson simultaneously claimed “we know the Biden family is corrupt” and that there may not be any tapes at all.
“Well, first of all, we don’t know it exists. I don’t know the FBI has that,” Johnson said after host Vicki McKenna asked “when are we going to hear” the tapes. “All we know is what’s on that 1023. This is a confidential human source who told them that his source, we believe it’s [Mykola] Zlochevsky, the CEO of Burisma who is trying to rehabilitate himself, we believe he is the guy who is claimed to have made recordings. Again it’s a claim. It’s an allegation. We don’t know if they really exist or not.”
Some Republicans have suggested that Zlochevsky is the foreign national who spoke with the FBI source about the bribery claims and supposed audio tapes.
Notably, the FD-1023 at the center of these latest allegations appeared to be an attempt by ex-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to rehash the wild Ukrainian goose chase that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Additionally, while Giuliani tried to get Zlochevsky to assist in his dirt-digging operation against the Bidens in 2019, the Burisma founder only affirmed to the former New York City mayor that he never had any conversations with Joe Biden.
“No one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement,” Zlochevsky reportedly said at the time, ultimately leaving Giuliani unsatisfied.
Other top Republicans have also followed Johnson’s lead in acknowledging that there could be no recordings while speaking to credulous right-wing media figures hoping this is the smoking gun leading to Biden’s impeachment.
“We don’t know for sure if these tapes exist,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told radio host Chris Salcedo on Tuesday.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who has been the driving force behind the Biden investigations, also admitted on Tuesday that “we don’t know if they are legit or not.”
Comer, of course, threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress if he didn’t make the FD-1023 available to the public. In the end, Comer withdrew his complaint after the FBI allowed members of Congress to securely view the document.
Ultimately, despite the over-the-top claims made by Republicans about the FBI source’s 2020 tip, multiple mainstream media outlets have reported that the allegations were initially investigated and Trump’s own DOJ was unable to substantiate the accusations.
“The Trump Justice Department investigated the allegation, which involved his son Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine, in 2020, but prosecutors could not substantiate the claims, according to two people familiar with the matter,” The New York Times reported this month.
And as others have rightfully noted , GOP lawmakers are engaging in the same behavior that they criticized Democrats and liberals of allegedly doing with the Steele dossier, which is credulously elevating sketchy claims made by foreign nationals through paid FBI informants.
The Republicans loved the Steele Dossier so much they are creating their own.