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Right here’s a scorching tip for anybody attempting to hawk a lie: Add a quantity. Don’t make it too large, or too imprecise, like “thousands and thousands.” If you happen to’re speaking about stealing an election, 450,000 may work. Or 33,000. Or possibly 5,000. However actually, all these numbers are just a little suspiciously neat. To essentially make this factor work, the quantity must be one thing strong. One thing particular.
Like 17. Now there’s a quantity.
If you happen to’ve seen that quantity within the information this week, it’s most likely been as a part of the newest “scandal” that Republicans have whipped up about President Joe Biden. If you happen to haven’t seen it, depend your self fortunate, however don’t assume it’s going to final. As a result of Republicans, led by pidgin professional Sen. Chuck Grassley and whistleblower-hating Rep. James Comer, are claiming that there are “17 tapes” that doc their claims of a bribery scandal related to Biden and his son Hunter.
Have they heard these 17 tapes? No. Have they heard possibly 10 of the tapes? No. What number of tapes have they heard? Zero. They’ve heard zero tapes. As a result of the entire thing is simply one other a part of the prolonged fantasy story that Rudy Giuliani delivered to them years in the past. Just like the lacking whistleblower and the pretend “FBI doc,” Republicans know that is all a lie. They only don’t care.
The make-believe scandal that Republicans are actually pretending to analyze goes again to Might 1, 2019. That’s when Rudy Giulani introduced a story of intrigue, bribery, and blackmail to The New York Instances, with none proof, and the Instances did what it does when Guilani brings them something: They ran it with out query.
The declare from the beginning was primarily based round the truth that whereas Joe Biden had been vp, his son Hunter had been on the board of a Ukrainian vitality agency referred to as Burisma. In March 2016, Biden pressured Ukraine to fireplace a prosecutor named Viktor Shokin, closely hinting that U.S. support may be withheld if Shokin wasn’t dropped. From this, Giuliani spun a narrative that Shokin had been investigating Burisma and Biden had him fired to guard his son’s paycheck.
It took lower than per week for Bloomberg Information to do what The New York Instances had left out of their efforts to behave as a Giuliani transcription service. Bloomberg despatched reporters to Ukraine, interviewed officers, checked with Giuliani’s supposed sources, and regarded again on the very properly documented, very public occasions. They instantly confirmed that every thing Giuliani was claiming was nonsense.
The explanation that Biden put stress on Ukraine over Shokin was as a result of he was refusing to analyze Burisma. And never simply Burisma. Shokin was such a corrupt prosecutor that he was permitting oligarchs to do as they happy, as long as they shared just a little of their earnings. It was really a probe by the U.Okay.’s Severe Fraud Workplace that opened the door on how corrupt Shokin was, and the way his failure to analyze was turning Ukraine right into a hotspot for worldwide criminals. Eliminating Shokin was a vital step within the battle towards corruption in Ukraine.
Shokin himself has even confirmed that he was by no means investigating Burisma, which is all of the testimony that’s wanted to point out that the entire thing is a farce. The reality is that Biden fully ignored how his actions may harm his son’s revenue so as to do the suitable factor in stopping corruption. And, it doesn’t matter what Giuliani, Trump, or innumerable Republicans have stated since then, there may be not, was not, has not been, any proof of wrongdoing by both Joe Biden or Hunter Biden in Ukraine.
However simply because a criminal offense doesn’t exist has by no means stopped Republicans from persevering with to “examine.” Since Republicans gained management of the Home, that has meant Rep. James Comer cornponing his method throughout right-wing media repeating claims he is aware of usually are not true. As a result of reality has f*** all to do with it.
Highlights of this not-an-investigation embody the Mysterious Case of the Lacking Whistleblower.
To be clear, that informant “within the spy enterprise” just isn’t the whistleblower. The whistleblower solely informed Republicans concerning the informant. However they’ve by no means talked to the informant. Nobody has talked to the informant.
Who was the whistleblower? Somebody that Comer and Grassley say they belief fully, however who neither will title (Yeah, it’s virtually definitely Giuliani). Anyway, the whistleblower says the informant is legit, Comer and Grassley say the whistleblower is legit, and why can’t everybody simply be blissful?
Then there may be the Flap over the False Report. That’s the one through which Republicans insist that the FBI launch an FD-1023 kind containing a declare that surprisingly mirrors Giuliani’s unique, immediately debunked story from 2019. The FBI doesn’t need to launch this report back to the general public, as a result of they don’t launch unsubstantiated claims about anybody (properly, anybody however Hillary Clinton. James Comey made an exception in her case). Since anybody can file a kind FD-1023, and so they could make any form of declare they need, the FBI doesn’t present them until they’re able to examine and substantiate the claims. That’s as a result of they don’t need unsubstantiated claims known as an “FBI doc”—the best way dozens of Republicans and right-wing media sources have already carried out on this case.
Republicans have seen the doc. They know every thing it says. If Comer and Grassley had been severe, their subsequent step can be investigating these allegations. They’re not severe. That’s why they’re busy leaking uninvestigated claims to right-wing media and pounding the desk concerning the FBI.
Conveniently not noted of Comer’s Fox Information appearances is that the doc was really filed properly earlier than the election. Each the FBI and DOJ had loads of time to take a look at it whereas Trump was nonetheless parked within the White Home, Invoice Barr was legal professional common, and John Durham was already on his around the world quest for something anti-Biden. Solely none of them discovered the doc credible. The FBI really did comply with up, talking to informants in Ukraine (it’s the names of FBI sources on the bottom which are the redactions Republicans are complaining about once they say the FBI received’t give them a “clear” model). The entire thing was shortly and simply dismissed.
Now there’s a brand new declare from Grassley and Comer: The Case of the 17-Tape Oligarch. In response to Comer, an oligarch, nationality unknown, was one of many large house owners of Burisma when all of the bribery was taking place. One way or the other sensing that he may want it to guard himself in the future, this oligarch made 17 audio recordings of his conferences and cellphone calls with Joe and Hunter Biden, capturing all the small print of what Comer calls “shenanigans.”
Nevertheless, to utterly nobody’s shock, Republicans can’t produce the tapes. Or the oligarch.
However once more, simply because the tapes do not exist, and nobody can discover the informant, and nobody has talked to the unknown oligarch, doesn’t imply that Republicans can’t repeat this in a thousand variations.
That proper there? That’s what’s often called bullshit. Blackburn is now claiming {that a} “prime FBI official” informed her that they had been protecting up the tapes. These tapes that had been supposedly within the possession of the oligarch nobody has seen in three years. As a result of when the lies get heaped up this deep, don’t count on Republicans to maintain monitor.
And who was that prime FBI official? He’s most likely lacking. So many individuals are lacking.
Whereas the FBI is on the market in search of these lacking of us, they may need to try the man with a report of threatening whistleblowers.
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