Didn't both of those "whistleblowers" get shit canned BEFORE "coming forward"?
Oversight Committee @GOPoversight wrote:
“Today, we have two brave and credible IRS whistleblowers who have risked their careers to come forward and provide important testimony.
Their testimony about the DOJ, FBI, and IRS’s investigation of Hunter Biden confirms the committee’s findings. That there is nothing normal about the Biden family’s business activity.”
@RepJamesComer
opens hearing with IRS whistleblowers
Steve Guest @SteveGuest wrote:
WATCH: IRS Whistleblower X Joe Ziegler exposes Hunter Biden's 2018 tax return: "A false tax return that includes improper deductions for prostitutes, sex clubs, and his adult children's tuition."
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Listened to the opening statements. They are both generally likeable dudes.
Their main issue seems to be that Weiss at one point said he didn't have authority to charge what he wanted to charge, and later (and repeatedly) said he did. Plus the fact that Hunter never paid taxes on his Burisma haul.
Aaron Rupar @atrupar wrote:
Krishnamoorthi uses his questioning time to highlight that many of the concerns one of the Republican witnesses have pertain to things that happened during the Trump administration
Krishnamoorthi: Biden was not the president, was he? It's just a simple question sir
Ziegler: Can you rephrase?
Krishnamoorthi: Joe Biden was not the president during the primaries of 2020
(this is not going well for the GOP witnesses)
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Dem (sorry, can't identify) in the course of questioning asks the witnesses if Biden was pres in April 2020. They both stumble answering this one. Jeff (Ziegler) works it out fairly quickly and says "no". Mutt (Shapley) says he doesn't understand the question (!), then, when it get asked a third or fourth time, says "The point is that the was a candidate at that time, and that is the same issues as being president." Eventually manages to say "No." Who did prep with these poor guys?
Stephen Lynch is talking about Flynn as an example of sweetheart deals. I love it.
Caught most of Schiff questioning early -- He was kind, discussing the issue of prosecutors not always charging everything, with the obvious reference to TFG and the documents case as an example. Then he focused in on Weiss's contradictory take on his authority. Jeff resisted saying anything and went with "it's not only that" and pivoted to the aforementioned nonpayment of Burisma taxes. Jeff is bit on saying that he expected massive indictments from Weiss, and that it astounds him that they didn't come. Mutt agrees.
Ro Khana elicits the fact that Mutt disagrees with criminal investigator folks 90 percent of the time (he wants to prosecute; they don't); Mutt doesn't respect those folks. Khana asks him if he respects Weiss more or less than the criminal folks. Mutt says he doesn't understand (again) and slides.
Khana says he respects the witnesses; feels the issue is that the recommendations of the witnesses are fine--their opinions, and he respects their dedication. Brings up Les Miserable. Seriously. Compares them to Insp. Javer. I took it as a dig he didn't expect the witnesses to get.
Margie poo up. Not listening, but noticed she. held up a board that mentioned human trafficking and the man act. She's got fancy boards with pix. Okay....
p0rtia wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:24 pm
Ro Khana elicits the fact that Mutt disagrees with criminal investigator folks 90 percent of the time (he wants to prosecute; they don't); Mutt doesn't respect those folks. Khana asks him if he respects Weiss more or less than the criminal folks. Mutt says he doesn't understand (again) and slides.
Khana says he respects the witnesses; feels the issue is that the recommendations of the witnesses are fine--their opinions, and he respects their dedication. Brings up Les Miserable. Seriously. Compares them to Insp. Javer. I took it as a dig he didn't expect the witnesses to get.
video of above minus les miz
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
The only one of these "influence Peddling" things Ive ever looked at was a Daily Mail article where they said "Hunter Biden receives millions from Russian Oligarch" So he made the mistake of giving me the link, so I looked at the story. After a long bunch of irrelevant crap about the women who was the Russian Oligarch it finally got to the actual point... and the actual story was that a Company FOUNDED by Hunter Biden and a bunch of other people received some money from the oligarch and passed the money onto to a Chinese account.
Probably the same transaction has been used as an accusation of "peddling Chinese influence."
HUNTER BIDEN RECEIVED a Million Dollars from Company associated with Chinese and Russians? His salary from his companies over the space of 5+ years.
Ya, a big fat nothingburger over people tossing money back and forth between themselves, probably to avoid tax. Like companies do all the time.
p0rtia wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:25 pm
Margie poo up. Not listening, but noticed she. held up a board that mentioned human trafficking and the man act. She's got fancy boards with pix. Okay....
Tell me you're secretly jealous of Katie Porter without telling me you're jealous of Ms Porter.
p0rtia wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:25 pm
Margie poo up. Not listening, but noticed she. held up a board that mentioned human trafficking and the man act. She's got fancy boards with pix. Okay....
Tell me you're secretly jealous of Katie Porter without telling me you're jealous of Ms Porter.
Yeahbut mtg's have nekkid pics of Hunter Biden!
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“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Dr. Ken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 4:32 pm
Seriously what's the obsession by republicans with Hunter's nudes?
Their base believes it weakens the president.
More charitably, the House committee is trying to establish that (1) Hunter crimed, and (2) the Biden DOJ deliberately did not charge him (because he's the president's son).
Such an argument, however, could be made without resort to oversized 'zibits of Hunter's (oversized) peen.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Dr. Ken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 4:32 pm
Seriously what's the obsession by republicans with Hunter's nudes?
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has been leading the way on the House Oversight Committee that's investigating Hunter Biden – and promising to hold two impeachment votes on cabinet appointees of Biden's before the Aug. recess, he told reporters Thursday.
"We've got a lot of members that want to impeach," Comer told Raw Story. "And we've got some members that would probably not go that route for the simple reason that they don't think that the Senate is going to do anything. And, you know, it gobbles up valuable floor time.
"But, look, [Speaker Kevin] McCarthy is gonna make that call. I think you see in recent days he's taken steps to move forward with impeachment on both [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas and [Attorney General] Merrick Garland. I think they're waiting to see what more evidence we come up with in the Oversight Committee for Biden."
Raw Story went on to ask Comer if Washington is now going to be nothing but non-stop impeachments against an opposing party.
"Well, you know, if it is, it's because the Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice," complained Comer, indicating that the impeachments are about retaliation.
So stupid to have those words fall out of his mouth.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
Naughty. Letter from the FBI to Comer telling him not to publicize the FD-1023.
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The FD-1023:
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“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Ranking Member Raskin’s Statement on GOP Release of FBI Document
Jul 20, 2023 Press Release Secondhand Claims Recorded in the Form 1023 Already Investigated and Dismissed by the Trump DOJ
Washington, D.C. (July 20, 2023)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, issued the following statement after Chairman James Comer and Senator Chuck Grassley released a Form FD-1023 containing unverified, secondhand claims that were already investigated by the Trump Department of Justice as part of a review of bribery allegations made by Rudy Giuliani:
“As the antics and pratfalls continue to multiply, it’s now clear that Chairman Comer threatened to hold FBI Director Wray in contempt over a document that Senator Grassley already had in his possession and Chairman Comer had already viewed. Now Chairman Comer and Senator Grassley are disseminating these unverified claims without the critical context provided by the FBI in a briefing to Chairman Comer and myself because, as Senator Grassley admitted, they do not care about the accuracy of these allegations, evidently just their political utility.
“This FBI document released by Republicans records the unverified, secondhand, years-old allegations relayed by a confidential human source who stated he could not provide ‘further opinion as to the veracity’ of these allegations. Even Senator Johnson recognized these allegation may have been fabricated out of thin air.
“The version of the document released by Republicans makes clear that the source of the information is Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. As I noted in a letter to Chairman Comer last month, Mr. Zlochevsky was at the center of a pressure campaign by Rudy Giuliani in 2019 and 2020 on behalf of then-President Trump, during which Mr. Zlochevsky was interviewed and directly denied these allegations. He stated unequivocally that no one at Burisma had ‘any contacts’ with then former Vice President Biden or his representatives while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board, and he denied that former Vice President Biden or his staff ‘in any way’ assisted Mr. Zlochevsky or Burisma.
“Furthermore, Lev Parnas, a central participant and co-conspirator in Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine and to spread disinformation against Joe Biden, wrote to Congress and offered to testify under oath that, based on his firsthand knowledge, there has ‘never been any factual evidence’ to support these bribery allegations, ‘only conspiracy theories,’ which have been ‘proven false many times over.’ He asked Chairman Comer to confront the reality that there is no evidence for these claims and to call off the Committee’s ‘wild goose chase.’
“Releasing this document in isolation from explanatory context is another transparently desperate attempt by Committee Republicans to revive the aging and debunked Giuliani-framed conspiracy theories and to distract from their continuing failure to produce any actual evidence of wrongdoing by the President—even at the cost of endangering the safety of FBI sources.”
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“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler