GOP Senator Admits Biden Bribery Tapes Might Not Exist After All | The New Republic
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Republican Senator Chuck Grassley admitted that he doesn't actually know if the audio recordings that he said reveal Joe Biden accepting a bribe even exist.
Republicans have spent all week accusing the president of accepting a bribe from Ukraine (conveniently at the same time Donald Trump was arrested for stealing and hiding classified documents) and referring specifically to a set of recordings that prove their claim. The GOP learned about these supposed recordings as part of the House Oversight Committee's months-long investigation into the Biden family, which has yet to produce any actual evidence linking Biden to wrongdoing.
House members were allowed last week to see a redacted version of an FD 10-23, a form the FBI uses to note unverified information from confidential sources. Grassley had called Monday for the FBI to release the unredacted version of the form, which he said mentioned 17 audio recordings of Biden and his son Hunter Biden accepting a bribe from an executive at Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian oil company where Hunter Biden served on the board for a few years.
But speaking on a podcast Wednesday, Grassley admitted he doesn't know whether or not the tapes are real.
"I'm oversight of the FBI," the Iowa Republican said, referring to his work on the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus.
"I want to know [if] the FBI, are you doing your work? I want to see your work. Have you listened to these tapes? And if you haven't, why haven't you? In other words, do the tapes even exist?"
Grassley isn't even the only Republican to acknowledge the tapes might not be real. Senator Ron Johnson told Fox News Thursday that "we don't know" if the tapes exist. House Oversight Chair James Comer, who has led the charge against Biden, said Wednesday he doesn't know if the recordings are "legit."
And yet these tapes have been the basis for almost every accusation leveled against Biden this past week. Republicans are pushing a conspiracy first started by Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump 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.
This claim has been widely debunked by Ukrainian officials, U.S. State Department officials, American intelligence experts, and Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky.
Democratic Congressman Reveals the Fatal Flaw in GOP's Biden Investigation
If you're claiming someone has all the evidence, that person should probably agree with you.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesRepresentative Daniel Goldman
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 not only does the FBI form they saw last week mention 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 re
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The damn gop is lying like a Trump about Biden!
republicans are willing to say or do anything to take the spotlight off their federally indicted criminal hero...
It sounds more like they know the tapes dont exist and are looking for a way to save face.
Unfortunately for Republicans, speaking things into existence is still just wishful thinking.
Just yesterday the MAGA were insisting that we were not willing to even look at their evidence...
Where? Show us the evidence. Produce a witness!
There is a very good chance that the tapes are only in his mind.
The tape ‘worms’ are giving them a massive dose of indigestion.
Where are all the righties who were so damn indignant about this yesterday?
maybe they joined up with all the lefties who were disappointed with the Great Mueller Report.
The Mueller report was actually very damning/damaging to Trump.
Mueller said he would have filed charges on anybody but a sitting president.
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quote that claim in the Mueller Report or is it made up?
I just read an article that Comey (once again) stated that his supposed whistleblower on this has been MIA for three years...
Comer? you mean
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