And they are definitely not even "whistleblowers." There is also a very specific legal procedure to gain whistleblower protections and they didn't even attempt to follow it. So they and Jordan are also just making that up. And we have heard lots of ph9ony screams about the J6 committee supposedly being a secret star chamber but here Jordan and his treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans are literally conducting a corrupt phony secret star chamber in plain sight. And think people won't notice.

 

'Who you mad at?': Former RNC chair buries Jim Jordan's 'dog and pony show'

Tom Boggioni
May 21, 2023, 7:49 AM ET



Jim Jordan (Photo by Susan Walsh for AFP)


Appearing on MSNBC with fill-in host Charles Blow, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele dropped the hammer on House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan's latest FBI "weaponization" hearing and laughed at how poorly his hearings have all gone.

As Steele told the host, the Ohio Republican is inadvertently making the case that the real problems lie within the years Donald Trump was president and his own DOJ.

Above all, Steele claimed Jordan is running a "dog and pony show" that is not convincing anyone that there was a conspiracy against conservatives and Trump.

"Michael, did Jordan's performance during these hearings actually help Democrats prove their point, the only party weaponizing the government is the Republican Party?" host Blow asked.

"Any time Jordan opens his mouth he proves that point," Steele shot back. "The reality is there's no substance to any of this. This is just the dog and pony show, it's like the worst you can come up with in the world where you can just make stuff up. So you're trying to connect dots that do not exist. You're grasping about little lines of this and a little line over here about something else, and none of it ever comes together."

"So this idea of weaponization of the government is being done by the very people who are supposed to be investigating weaponization," he continued before laughing and adding, "I guess by the Biden administration? Didn't this all occur during Trump's term in office? It was his Justice Department and FBI. It just kind of proves the point."

"So, are you mad at Trump? Jordan, Jim, are you mad at Trump?" he added while still laughing. "Are you mad at Mr. [Bill] Barr? Who you mad at? What are you trying -- where was the weaponization against Trump's own people by Trump? Because that's basically what we are looking at here."

Watch below or at the link:




https://www.rawstory.com/jim-jordan-weaponization-2660401180/

 

Republican faces questions over whether he lied under oath to key panel

73
David Smith in Washington
Mon, May 22, 2023 at 6:00 AM MDT



Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

A key Republican witness is facing questions over whether he lied under oath about receiving financial aid from an ally of former US president Donald Trump.

Garret O’Boyle, a former FBI field agent turned purported whistleblower, testified last week to a congressional panel investigating what Republicans assert is the “weaponisation” of the federal government against conservatives.

Related: FBI broke own rules in January 6 and BLM intelligence search, court finds

At one point, O’Boyle was asked by Democrat Dan Goldman whether Kash Patel, who held multiple roles in the Trump administration, is helping finance O’Boyle’s legal counsel. The witness replied: “Not that I’m aware of.”


The answer has raised eyebrows because, during a previous interview with the House of Representatives’ weaponisation subcommittee in February, O’Boyle disclosed that his legal fees are being paid by a nonprofit organisation called Fight With Kash, also known as the Kash Foundation and run by Kash Patel.

Furthermore, a Democratic staff report published in March notes that Patel arranged for Jesse Binnall, who served as Trump’s top “election fraud” lawyer in 2020, to serve as counsel for O’Boyle. Binnall sits on the Kash Foundation’s board of directors and has acknowledged working on past lawsuits funded by the foundation.

In light of these details, Democrats are concerned that O’Boyle was not fully truthful before the committee chaired by Republican Jim Jordan, a staunch Trump backer. Lying to Congress carries a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment.

Goldman told the Guardian: “Mr O’Boyle’s answers in the subcommittee hearing on Thursday appear to contradict his previous testimony in the transcribed interview with subcommittee staff. In order to ensure witnesses are truthful when they come before the subcommittee, Chairman Jordan must determine whether or not Mr O’Boyle lied under oath on Thursday.”

O’Boyle was an FBI special agent from 2018 until earlier this year. He was among several former FBI employees who accused the bureau of politicisation at the hearing, which took place a day after the FBI announced that two of them had their security clearances revoked after either attending the January 6 insurrection or espousing conspiracy theories about the attack.

The Congressional Integrity Project, a watchdog monitoring the Republican investigations, had previously noted that the witnesses on Thursday included anti-vaxxers, election deniers and supporters of far-right groups.

Jordan and other Republicans on the committee hailed the ex-FBI employees as patriots who were facing retribution for speaking out against government abuse. Democrats dismissed the testimony, calling the hearing another partisan attempt by Republicans on the committee to help Trump.

Stacey Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands, said: “This select committee is a clearinghouse for testing conspiracy theories for Donald Trump to use in his 2024 presidential campaign.”

In a series of contentious exchanges, Democrats complained that one of Thursday’s witnesses was only interviewed by Republican members of the committee. Many pointed to House rules that state minority and majority staff are required to have equal access to witness testimony, whether it is a whistleblower account or not.

O’Boyle’s testimony could pile pressure on Jordan over the credibility of the weaponisation subcommittee, seen by critics as a brazen attempt to damage Joe Biden ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, said: “Mr O’Boyle’s testimony in this week’s hearing should be investigated immediately by Chairman Jordan’s subcommittee. The fact that O’Boyle’s own lawyer has such deep ties to Kash Patel, a January 6 co-conspirator and close ally of Donald Trump, is already enough to call any of his testimony into question.”

Jordan’s office denies that O’Boyle lied under oath. Russell Dye, a spokesperson for the chairman, said: “Yet again the Democrats distorted the facts in their report on our brave FBI whistleblowers. Jesse Binnall is representing Mr O’Boyle pro bono.”

Dye pointed to a transcript of O’Boyle’s interview in which Binnall sought to explain his role. Binnall told the subcommittee that “although Mr O’Boyle was not aware of this directly, his representation by counsel is actually not being paid by anybody because it’s pro bono”.

However, Democrats rejected this argument at the time. They wrote in their report that “O’Boyle’s own testimony concerning his interactions with Kash Patel undercuts Binnall’s apparent attempt to distance himself and his client from Patel.

“Committee Democrats note further that as recently as February 12 – two days after O’Boyle testified – Patel praised Binnall on Truth Social, calling him ‘Americas lawyer.’ Binnall and Patel appear to operate out of the same Alexandria, VA, office building.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republican-faces-questions-over-whether-120033918.html

 

As it turns out, the "deplorable revenge investigations" in response to the "despicable revenge investigations" are having more effect in a shorter period of time.

 

Key Republican witness may have lied under oath about receiving financial help from Trump ally: report

Elizabeth Preza, AlterNet
May 22, 2023, 7:25 PM ET



Congressman Jim Jordan speaking with attendees at the 2021 AmericaFest. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)


A former FBI field agent and key Republican witness on the House Judiciary Committee’s “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government” may have lied under oath about receiving financial aid from a Donald Trump ally, the Guardian reports.

Garret O’Boyle — described by the Washington Post as "a suspended FBI special agent from the Wichita Resident Agency in Kansas" — was a star witness last Thursday for the “weaponization” subcommittee, a Freedom Caucus brainchild purporting to uncover clear evidence that the U.S. government, “and in particular the Justice Department, has unfairly targeted conservatives,” as NBC News reports.

Per the Guardian, O’Boyle was asked at one point "whether Kash Patel, who held multiple roles in the Trump administration, is helping finance O’Boyle’s legal counsel.”

“Not that I’m aware of,” O’Boyle said, according to a transcript of the exchange.

"The answer has raised eyebrows because, during a previous interview with the House of Representatives’ [weaponization] subcommittee in February, O’Boyle disclosed that his legal fees are being paid by a nonprofit organisation called Fight With Kash, also known as the Kash Foundation and run by Kash Patel," the Guardian reports.

Indeed, a Democratic Staff Report published on March 2 reveals:

During their interviews, Garret O’Boyle and Stephen Friend both confirmed that they ha received money from Patel. Committee Democrats have determined that Patel’s support for them extends beyond that to helping them secure legal counsel and promoting them and their causes.

According to that report, O’Boyle told Democratic Committee staff, “[Patel] asked me how he could help. So I told him a little bit of my situation. And he said that he thinks he could get the nonprofit to help.”

As the Guardian notes, “Lying to Congress carries a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who asked O’Boyle last week about Patel’s involvement, told the Guardian, “Mr O’Boyle’s answers in the subcommittee hearing on Thursday appear to contradict his previous testimony in the transcribed interview with subcommittee staff. In order to ensure witnesses are truthful when they come before the subcommittee, Chairman Jordan must determine whether or not Mr O’Boyle lied under oath on Thursday.”

Russell Dye, a spokesperson fro Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) (who chairs both the "weaponization" subcommittee and the House Judiciary Committee at large) accused Democrats of “[distorting] the facts in their report on our brave FBI whistleblowers.”

You can read the full report at the Guardian.


https://www.rawstory.com/key-republ...ncial-help-from-trump-ally-report-2660500471/

 

Oversight chair appears to admit his investigation is designed to help Trump win the White House

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
May 22, 2023, 8:30 PM ET



Screengrab.


Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer in a 4 AM interview Monday morning appears to have admitted to actually weaponizing the federal government for political gain.

Chairman Comer, Republican of Kentucky, appeared to tell Fox News early Monday morning that his investigations into Hunter Biden are actually designed to help Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election.

“We have talked to you about this on the show, about how the media can just not ignore this any longer. In an op-ed in The Washington Post, it says, ‘Millions Flowed to Biden Family Members. Don’t Pretend It Doesn’t Matter,’” said Fox News host Ashley Strohmier, as HuffPost reported Monday. “So do you think that because of your investigation, that is what’s moved this needle with the media?”

“Absolutely. There’s no question,” Comer replied, sounding very similar to Kevin McCarthy in 2015 (below) when he admitted the Benghazi investigations were designed to hurt Hillary Clinton in the polls. “You look at the polling, and right now Donald Trump is 7 points ahead of Joe Biden and trending upward, Joe Biden’s trending downward. And I believe that the media is looking around, scratching their head, and they’re realizing that the American people are keeping up with our investigation.”

Comer citied one recent poll, but may polls show President Joe Biden beating Donald Trump, and overall, while it is still very early, the polls are very close.

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy had said. “But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a Select Committee ― what are her numbers today?” McCarthy had told Fox News at the time. “Her numbers are dropping, why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened.”

HuffPost notes that “in reality, despite House Republicans’ efforts to portray Biden as hopelessly corrupt, the committee didn’t present any evidence in its hearings that directly implicated Biden.”



https://www.rawstory.com/comer-2660503475/

 

Nadler rips GOP reps over debunked story on homeless veterans

252
Julia Mueller
Tue, May 23, 2023 at 2:13 PM MDT




Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday ripped his Republican colleagues for sharing a debunked story about homeless veterans being booted from hotel rooms to make space for migrants.

“Unfortunately, my colleagues are not ones to let facts get in the way of a good story,” Nadler said during a House Judiciary hearing about the U.S.-Mexico border, highlighting a false story that was featured by outlets including the New York Post and Fox News. “This was quickly echoed by the Speaker of the House and other congressional Republicans and even by one of our witnesses.”

Nadler then displayed a scroll of “tweet after tweet” from GOP lawmakers “amplifying this story to stoke fears about the order and to distract from their own failures to enact meaningful solutions.”

The slideshow included screenshots of tweets from Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) and Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.).


A nonprofit CEO in New York’s Orange County had claimed that homeless veterans were thrown out of upstate hotels to make room for migrants being bused from New York City.

New York state lawmaker Brian Maher (R), who first set off the media frenzy over the story, said last week he was “devastated and disheartened” to learn it was fabricated.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday that he would ask state officials to launch a probe to “determine if any criminality is involved.”

Nadler on Tuesday drew a connection between the story and the GOP’s ongoing focus on the southern border, even as the predicted post-Title 42 surge in migration has failed to materialize.

“So here we are again in another hearing about the quote, ‘Biden Border Crisis,’ close quote. I am sure that no matter what happens at the border, we will continue to have hearings on this topic. And we will continue to see partisan messaging bills that have no chance of ever becoming law,” Nadler said.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/nadler-rips-gop-reps-over-201309592.html

 

CNN’s John King Torpedoes Biden Probe Chief Comer for Citing Polls: ‘Saying the Quiet Part Loud’
By Tommy ChristopherMay 24th, 2023, 7:51 am

CNN anchor John King and correspondent Sara Murray torpedoed Kentucky Republican Congressman and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer for citing polls in relation to his probes of President Joe Biden and his family.

Comer bragged about the effect he believes his probes are having on Biden’s poll numbers, telling Fox New Monday that “You look at the polling, and right now Donald Trump is seven points ahead of Joe Biden and trending upward, Joe Biden’s trending downward” because of the investigations.

On Tuesday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, King and Murray painted Comer’s comments as an admission that the probes are intended to “hurt Biden politically,” and King threw in a shot at Fox News as “choir practice for Republicans”:


KING: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, listen here, saying the quiet part out loud. Chairman Comer says it is clear his investigation into Hunter Biden and Biden family finances is a success. How he makes that judgment? Listen, interesting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES COMER (R), CHAIR, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: You look at the polling and right now Donald Trump is seven points ahead of Joe Biden and trending upward. Joe Biden’s trending downward. And I believe that the media is looking around, scratching their head and they’re realizing that the American people are keeping up with our investigation and they realize something’s wrong here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: CNN’s Sara Murray joins us now. I will look around and scratch my head and say, I thought this was about uncovering facts about alleged wrongdoing, not about using an investigation or your power in the Congress to undermine the president’s political standing.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don’t know how to break the news to you that these political investigations are political. Yes, I mean, ostensibly what James Comer set out to do here is to investigate the Biden family business dealings. He’s, of course, said that Joe Biden could be implicated in, you know, some kind of shady foreign payments. He hasn’t proven any of that.

And he’s raised some questions about Hunter Biden’s business dealings. Fine. You know, Hunter Biden wasn’t the vice president, isn’t the president, isn’t working in the White House. But he’s pretty transparent there in believing that his investigation is actually going to hurt the sitting president, who’s, of course, running for president again.

And it’s not the first time that we’ve heard this kind of stuff from Republicans. I mean, Kevin McCarthy came out amid the Benghazi investigation and basically said the same thing about Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: And he also got a little bit of blowback for those comments for saying the quiet part out loud. But I think it’s pretty clear that, you know, even if you do turn up something that is credible as part of your investigation, that a driving motivation for Republicans is trying to, you know, cast shade on Joe Biden when he’s running for reelection.

KING: And, you know, both of those comments were, let’s say, on a network that is essentially choir practice, choir practice for Republicans.

Sara, glad you’re here to help us share that.

Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.


https://www.mediaite.com/news/cnns-...-for-citing-polls-saying-the-quiet-part-loud/

 

Jim Jordan Freaks Out When Dem Confronts Him With House Rules

7.8k
Justin Baragona
Thu, May 18, 2023 at 1:00 PM MDT·2 min read



Fox News
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) repeatedly denied Democrats’ requests to receive the testimony of one of the GOP’s self-described “whistleblowers” during Thursday’s House hearing on the “weaponization” of the FBI, prompting Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) to confront him with the actual rules.

Needless to say, Jordan was less than pleased.

During this latest hearing pushing the GOP narrative that the FBI is weaponized against conservatives, Jordan told Democrats that “you’re not getting the testimony” of FBI staff operations specialist Marcus Allen, claiming the minority party isn’t entitled to all evidence collected from whistleblowers.


“These are not whistleblowers,” Ranking Member Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) exclaimed. “The law has not determined they are whistleblowers. His attorney is just asserting that.”

Later in the hearing, after initially being shut down by Jordan, Goldman requested a point of order to state the rules, which he noted required transcripts to be made available to all members of committees.

“Where is the whistleblower exception to the rules?” Goldman wondered.

An animated Jordan said it was the “prerogative of the committee to decide” before adding: “We have the whistleblower testimony. The whistleblower does not wish it to be made available to the Democrats at this time!”

Goldman quickly shot back that “the whistleblower doesn’t make committee rules” before Jordan attempted to move on to another committee member, eventually arguing with Goldman a bit more.

This isn’t the first time that Goldman and Jordan have sparred during the subcommittee’s “weaponization” hearings. Back in February, the New York congressman questioned the chairman’s claims that he had “dozens” of whistleblowers lined up, pointing out that Democrats had not been provided with any statements from any of these individuals.

Democrats, meanwhile, have questioned the credibility of Allen as a whistleblower, noting that his FBI security clearance was revoked after expressing support for the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Besides peddling Jan. 6 conspiracies, the other so-called whistleblowers at Thursday’s hearing have also been paid thousands of dollars by Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/jim-jordan-freaks-dem-confronts-190012510.html

 

White House memo says GOP 'telling the truth' on Hunter Biden

Andrew Harnik
1.2k
Katherine Doyle
Wed, May 24, 2023 at 3:50 PM MDT




WASHINGTON — For months, the White House has accused Republicans of wielding Congress’ oversight powers to pursue politically motivated attacks against President Joe Biden.

Now the White House says that the Republican congressman helming the probe into the Biden family’s finances is making their case for them.

In a new memo obtained first by NBC News, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said MAGA Republicans in the House led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer are “admitting” that congressional investigations into the Biden family’s finances are an attempt to damage the president politically.

"[E]xtreme MAGA House Republicans are being caught doing something they rarely do: telling the truth,” he said. “They are admitting through their own words and deeds that these so-called ‘investigations’ are actually intended not to reveal facts but to hurt the President’s political standing.”


Comer’s comments linking the probes to Biden’s poll numbers in a Fox News interview made this explicit, Sams continued.

Asked Monday about the impact of his probe on Biden’s political standing heading into 2024, Comer said it had “absolutely” moved the needle.

“There’s no question,” he said. “You look at the polling, and right now Donald Trump is 7 points ahead of Joe Biden and trending upward; Joe Biden’s trending downward. And I believe that the media is looking around, scratching their head, and they’re realizing the American people are keeping up with our investigation.”

Comer has previously argued that his investigation isn't politically motivated.

Sams argued that shows the Republican motives.

“Despite previously insisting that his investigation ‘isn’t political’ and that the ‘only people that see this as a partisan investigation are the media and the hardcore Democrats,’ on Monday morning around 4:00 a.m., Comer took to the Fox airwaves to boast that his investigations are ‘moving the needle’ not because he has uncovered facts but because he claimed (falsely, by the way) that President Biden’s poll numbers are “trending downward,” he said.

House Oversight Committee Republicans led by Comer are investigating foreign payments made to Biden’s family members, including the president’s son Hunter Biden and brother James.

A memo released earlier this month by Comer argues that Biden family activities in Romania “bear clear indications of a scheme to peddle influence from 2015 to 2017.”

Comer has suggested that Biden may have been improperly influenced by his family’s overseas business ties while serving as vice president. But despite teasing a paper trail for months, the Kentucky Republican has yet to reveal any payments made to Biden directly, before or after leaving the Obama White House.

Sams pointed to reports drawing a parallel between Comer’s comments and a moment eight years ago when Kevin McCarthy linked House Republicans' Benghazi investigation to Hillary Clinton’s sliding poll numbers.

Republicans quickly backed away from the comments, describing the tie-in as a “disappointment.” Soon after, McCarthy dropped out of the speakership race.

A House Oversight Committee spokesperson defended Comer’s probe into the Biden family, saying it's up to the White House to provide transparency.

“No amount of Washington spin can change these facts or erase these bank records,” the spokesperson said. “The White House must provide the American people with transparency now. The Oversight Committee will continue to pursue the truth and accountability for the American people.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com




https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-memo-says-gop-215033401.html

 

Democrats Roast Republicans During Hearing on Gas Stoves

610
Nikki McCann Ramirez
Wed, May 24, 2023 at 12:35 PM MDT



congress-oversight-gas-stove-hearing.jpg House Oversight and Accountability Committee Hearing - Credit: Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

The White House and Republican leadership are currently attempting to negotiate a debt-ceiling deal to avoid an economic disaster. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are tackling something far more important: the God-given right to buy a gas stove.

On Wednesday, the Oversight Committee held a hearing titled “Consumer Choice on the Backburner: Examining the Biden Administration’s Regulatory Assault on Americans’ Gas Stoves.” The hearing is part of a convoluted, culture-war-fueled attempt by Republicans to cast proposed efficiency standards for gas stoves as an all-out assault on Americans’ freedom to choose their cooktops.


If it sounds dumb, it’s because it is. The Consumer Product Safety Commission clarified in January that they have no desire to seize your gas cooking appliances, and Democrats on the committee were quick to point out that the hearing was a ridiculous waste of time given everything else going on.

“I have a six-burner double oven range that sits on legs. I mean, I miss her right now as we’re talking about it,” joked Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) in a sarcastic critique of Republicans’ priorities. “I want to apologize on behalf of the Democratic Party that we have decided to [prioritize] kids’ safety in their neighborhoods, from getting gunned down in movie theaters or grocery stores, or school churches or synagogues. We as Democrats have clearly lost our way, that we are not focused on appliances.”

“My friends across the aisle are telling those parents that you can breathe a sigh of relief that the Grand Appliance Party is going to make sure your gas stove goes nowhere,” he added. “The good news for you today is that if you have to shut down your business because the country defaults, your gas stove will still be there. And so, you know, I look forward to the legislation of our time, the Appliance Bill of Rights.”


“This proposed rule is not a ban on gas stoves,” declared Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). “We are regulating indoor air pollution.” Bush pointed to the disproportionate levels of lead exposure and negative environmental impacts experienced by Black residents of her district, telling Republicans that their inaction was “costing us lives.”

Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) drew attention to things that are actually being banned — by Republicans. “It is my hope that Republicans will redirect their focus to the well-being of American people rather than politicizing kitchen appliances,” she said. “You know what they are banning? Abortions. You know what they are banning? Books. You know what they won’t ban? Assault weapons. But we are sitting up here talking about a ban on gas stoves.”


In January, Republicans dived headfirst into “Come and Take It” outrage after CPSC Agency Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said in an interview that evidence suggests gas stoves may contribute to poor indoor air quality and childhood asthma. “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” Trumka said. The commission later clarified that a ban was not on the table, but improved safety standards were.

The GOP response to the comment was nothing short of hysterical. “I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!” tweeted Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas). Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) even tweeted his own version of the Battle of Gonzales “Come and Take It” flag stylized to include a gas burner.


Republicans’ response was the subject of mockery, but the fact that it’s now become an issue of congressional focus has left lawmakers exasperated. “This is dangerous and dumb, we have much better things to focus our time on,” Rep. Brown said in the conclusion of her statements to the committee.


https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/democrats-roast-republicans-during-hearing-183515718.html

 

Rep. James Comer Struggles To Give A Straight Answer In Awkward Fox News Moment

792
Ben Blanchet
Thu, May 25, 2023 at 4:42 AM MDT


House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) struggled to say whether the FBI had one or more informants in an interview on his Biden family investigation, a probe that’s yet to offer evidence to back GOP claims that President Joe Biden engaged in “influence peddling” before his administration.

Comer is taking on the FBI over a document — an FD-1023 form it uses to record conversations with confidential sources — that he claims ties the president’s son Hunter Biden and other family members to taking in over $10 million from foreign sources.

The Republican, who suggested his own informant on the matter went “missing” and implied the investigation is about aiding former President Donald Trump, joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday to discuss what “could be” in a probe that has centered on unsubstantiated allegations.

“With respect to the FBI, they could’ve had many meetings with this informant,” Comer said.

“But the way the FBI described it and the way my staff and I interpreted it was there were multiple 1023s. So it could’ve been the same informant that the FBI met with multiple times.”

Hannity went on to press Comer over whether the FBI had “multiple sources” alleging what he earlier termed a “Biden bribery scheme.”

“It could be multiple sources or it could be one,” Comer replied, “The name of the informant is confidential, right.”

“OK, uh, anyway, James Comer, thanks for the update, we appreciate it, keep up the good work,” said Hannity.


Comer, in a Wednesday letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, warned that his committee would move to hold him in contempt of Congress if his agency didn’t comply with a subpoena for the form, according to a committee press release.

Comer confirmed to Hannity that he plans to meet with Wray next week to discuss the investigation.

An FBI spokesperson told CNN that a meeting between the two is set to take place in “the coming days.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/rep-james-comer-struggles-straight-104223778.html

 

To be a treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republican you must always suspend disbelief. There is no past, or future. You must only believe whatever they say when they say it. Even when what they said before is on video tape they demand to not believe your lying eyes and ears. You must only believe what I say when I day it.


Comer Does Furious Walkback On Fox — Claims He Didn’t Say His Biden Probes Helped Trump Polls
By Tommy ChristopherMay 25th, 2023, 10:14 am

Kentucky Republican Congressman and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer went on Fox to claim he didn’t cite ex-President Donald Trump’s polls in relation to his probes of President Joe Biden and his family following backlash over the remarks.

Comer bragged about the effect he believes his probes are having on Biden’s poll numbers, telling Fox News Monday that “You look at the polling, and right now Donald Trump is seven points ahead of Joe Biden and trending upward, Joe Biden’s trending downward” because of the investigations.

The remark drew callouts from CNN journalists who called it “pretty clear” evidence the probes are intended to hurt Biden and help Trump, and from Maryland Congressman and Ranking Democratic Member of the House Oversight Committee Jamie Raskin, who said “It’s amazing to me that the Chairman of the Oversight Committee openly measures the progress of his work by Donald Trump’s poll numbers.”


On Tuesday’s edition of Fox Business Network’s The Bottom Line, co-hosts Dagen McDowell and Sean Duffy mocked Raskin and gave Comer the opportunity to respond.

Comer joined the hosts in mocking Raskin, then claimed his remarks about Trump’s polling actually “had nothing to do with Donald Trump”:

COMER: Look, when I was referencing poll numbers, it had nothing to do with Donald Trump. It had to do with the fact that the American people overwhelmingly believe that, that public corruption is a problem, and they’re concerned about how Joe Biden’s family got this money from foreign nationals, that’s what I was referencing in the polling, the polling shows the American people are keeping up with our investigation, it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.

But in his remarks Monday, Comer explicitly cited Trump’s lead over President Biden, without being asked to, and did not cite any polling data about awareness or approval of Comer’s investigation.

Watch above via Fox Business Network’s The Bottom Line.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/comer...idnt-say-his-biden-probes-helped-trump-polls/


Here's a video of Comer actually saying his investigation was helping g Trump;s poll numbers and his statement on Fox appears at about the 30 second mark.

 

James Comer Is Not Saying Joe Biden Took A $5 Million Bribe — He’s Just Asking Questions
3.1k

Arthur Delaney
Sat, May 27, 2023 at 6:00 AM MDT


In this article:

• 
  

• 
  

• 
  Joe Biden
  46th and current president of the United States

• 
  Hunter Biden
  American attorney and businessman

WASHINGTON — Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) can’t say for certain that Joe Biden once asked for a bribe, but he knows someone said it happened.

And if the FBI won’t declare the mysterious allegation true or false, Comer announced this week, then Republicans will seek to hold bureau Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress ― with Comer relentlessly promoting the bribery rumor anyway.

It’s the latest chapter in the House Oversight Committee chair’s quest for dirt on the president’s family. So far, the probe has found shell companies allegedly funneling foreign money to family members connected to Hunter Biden’s self-enrichment schemes, starting at the end of his father’s vice presidency and continuing while Joe Biden was out of office.

Comer has not shown a link to the president himself, a failure for which the Kentucky Republican has been skewered by New York Times stories and even Fox News. But Comer told HuffPost he considers the bribery allegation to be the thing that pulls the rest of his material together, and he said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has his back.


“The New York Times wants to say, ‘Well, there’s nothing there pertaining to Joe Biden,’” Comer said. “Here we have someone very credible who alleged that he solicited a bribe.”

Congressional Republicans this year have sought to tarnish the Justice Department’s image as it investigates former President Donald Trump and prosecutes his supporters for their involvement in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Comer and his colleagues have cast the FBI’s refusal to cough up information on the bribery allegation as itself suspicious, potentially another example of the so-called deep state protecting the Bidens.

At issue is an FBI document, an FD-1023 form, that reflects a tip from a confidential source in June 2020, at the height of the presidential campaign. It relates to what Comer has called a “bribery scheme with a foreign national” when Biden was vice president — the sort of damaging allegation that Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to produce in 2019, eventually resulting in Trump’s first impeachment.

Comer is already familiar with what the June 2020 tip says. Though he hasn’t seen the document itself, he’s reviewed “basically something pertaining to testimony,” he told HuffPost. But he wants to the FBI to hand it over.

In its initial response to Comer earlier this month, the FBI said that disclosing the material could risk endangering a confidential source and compromising current or future investigations. And it suggested that an FD-1023 form by itself would lack the context Comer is looking for.

“An FD-1023 form documents information as told to a line FBI agent,” wrote Christopher Dunham, the FBI’s acting assistant director for congressional affairs. “Recording the information does not validate the information, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI.”

Comer said all they have to do is redact the source’s name and complained that the FBI wouldn’t even confirm that the document existed.

“They won’t tell us whether or not they looked into it, whether or not they even have the form, much less what they determined or whether there’s an ongoing investigation,” he said.

Comer had initially asked the FBI for all FD-1023 forms from June 2020 that mention the name “Biden.” This week, in a follow-up letter to the bureau, he narrowed the search to documents that also include the terms “June 30th” and “five million,” which Comer explained is the amount of money “the foreign national allegedly paid to receive the desired policy outcome” from Biden ― as though the FBI were simply having a hard time finding the document.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said Comer is not actually trying to get to the bottom of the allegation, because his subpoena only asked for FD-1023 forms and attachments.

“Chair Comer did not subpoena information about the FBI’s investigation of it, or any response it had to it, or any further information about it,” he said Thursday. “It’s just that one sheet of paper.”

Raskin told HuffPost that he himself didn’t know anything about the substance of the allegation and that Democratic committee staffers had been shut out of the Republican members’ probe.

“It’s somebody introducing on an unverified, uncorroborated basis, a suggestion of subjective information about a tip,” he said. “That’s all it is.”

Republicans learned about the form from a whistleblower, one of several whose allegations have been highlighted on Capitol Hill recently. Oversight Committee member Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said this week that the whistleblower who told Republicans about the form is highly credible and “fears for their life.” But Comer said the FD-1023 whistleblower is not the same one connected to an informant whom Comer claimed had gone missing earlier this month.

Some of the whistleblowers have turned out to be less compelling than initially advertised. One former FBI agent alleging corruption in the Justice Department was someone who didn’t think the FBI should go after Jan. 6 rioters and basically refused to do his job. Another allegedly obstructed a Jan. 6 investigation because he believed a conspiracy theory that the Capitol riot had been orchestrated by the government.

And Comer has been a bit grandiose about his work. Before releasing a summary of the Oversight Committee’s preliminary findings from its investigation of shell companies connected to Hunter Biden and others in his family, Comer proclaimed the material would bring about “Judgment Day” for the White House. But after the report came out, Fox News host Steve Doocy complained that Comer had provided “no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.”

Still, Comer suggested this week that with the bribery allegation, he’s implicated Biden in criminal activity when he served as vice president.

“The vice president set up his family to profit from influence-peddling,” Comer said on Fox Business in an interview about the FBI subpoena. “At that point his political career was more than likely over, so he was trying to make money. And unfortunately he did it while he was in office, and he did it in a way through those shell companies that’s very illegal.”



https://news.yahoo.com/james-comer-not-saying-joe-120029842.html

 

Analyst accuses Fox News of keeping Oversight Republicans' sketchy 'FBI whistleblower' claim alive

Sarah K. Burris
May 28, 2023, 3:20 PM ET



Photo: Shutterstock


After struggling to find any scandal they could link to President Joe Biden, House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) asked for a 90-day extension on his investigation. The last thing they uncovered was several different LLCs owned by several president's family members. It prompted analysts to question the significance, given Donald Trump's family has control over 500 of LLCs, all inter-linked, and in many different countries, CNBC reported in 2018.

At the same time, Republicans have been cagey on an interview that the FBI did in June 2020 with someone who had an accusation involving Biden. Neither the FBI nor the GOP will say anything about it, Washington Post columnist Philip Bump wrote Sunday. In fact, Republicans won't even tell Democrats what they know about it or how they learned the details about the investigation.

Comer, along with Senate Budget Committee ranking member, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), subpoenaed form FD-1023 that has the word "Biden" on it. Comer then told Fox host Sean Hannity that they wanted any document saying Biden "and the words 'five million dollars.'"

It's because they have very specific allegations. The Republicans claim that Biden was bribed. The two men sent a press release about the letter and their subpoena. Fox has thus mentioned Biden and "bribe" or "bribery" more than 100 times since then.

But for over a month, Comer has been unable to produce any information or documents to prove it, Bump explained. Comer and Grassley say it's because the FBI is standing in their way. But in a statement to Hannity, the FBI gave a statement:

“Releasing confidential source information could potentially jeopardize investigations and put lives at risk,” it explained. “The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have.”

Hannity was shocked and appalled. He complained, “Well, then hand it over,” skipping the statement's first sentence saying they won't release anything that is part of an ongoing or open investigation.

Bump looked at other FD-1023 forms to explain that they have a header with information about the agent's name doing the interview, the time and place, the source reporting, which has all of the details involved, and the agent's signature.

"In other words, it is a document that records an allegation and little else," wrote Bump. "That’s the argument the FBI used to reject the request to release it in the first place."

An allegation isn't an investigation, nor is it anything confirmed. It's simply the allegation.

“An FD-1023 form documents information as told to a line FBI agent. Recording the information does not validate the information, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI,” Bump quoted FBI acting assistant director Christopher Dunham saying. “The mere existence of such a document would establish little beyond the fact that a confidential human source provided information and the FBI recorded it.”

Comer told Fox that he asked the FBI what they did to investigate the claim. The answer is the same as what they told Hannity. They don't reveal anything from an open investigation.

The GOP leaders say the FBI is intentionally refusing to work with them. They're correct. The FBI intentionally informed them they don't reveal information involving ongoing investigations. It isn't new.

Meanwhile, there's no additional information that something is happening beyond what the House Republicans claim.

Comer indicates that there is an informant, which Bump explained folks should be wary of given his "reliability in discussing such an informant is shaky; in the Bartiromo interview, he claimed that the informant was 'missing,' claimed that the informant was 'missing,' but then his staff clarified that he was talking about someone else." Still, it gave enough speculation that allowed Fox a full day of conspiracy theories.

A few weeks ago, Fox hosts complained Comer didn't have anything.

"There exists a transcript of what was alleged by the whistleblower; Comer told Hannity earlier this month that he’d read such a document. It has not been provided to Democrats on the committee," Bump explained, noting that the House rules require that such information be given to both sides.

“n an effort to maximize innuendo on Fox News and dodge accountability, Chairman Comer has continued to insist he has secret evidence that he has concealed from Committee Democrats and the American public,” said the Democratic spokesperson. “These tactics reflect Republicans’ willingness to weaponize the Committee to achieve their political ends instead of engaging in responsible oversight.”

Bump closed his piece by saying that there's no more information now than there was a month ago when Comer and Grassley made their first allegations.



https://www.rawstory.com/house-oversight-committee-sketchy-whistlblower/

 

'Really disheartening!' Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo laments GOP's Biden probes have flopped

Brad Reed
May 31, 2023, 10:04 AM ET



Fox News/screen grab


Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, who was exposed during the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit for promoting election fraud claims that were concocted by a woman who claims to talk with the wind, lamented on Wednesday that Republicans' investigations into President Joe Biden had gone nowhere.

In an interview with Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), Bartiromo demanded to know what Republicans in the Senate planned to do to help their counterparts in the House of Representatives investigate the president and his family.

"Senator, it really is disheartening that to see all of the oversight that you all are trying to do, whether it's IRS, FBI, DOJ, and just having very little luck," she said.

She went on to accuse the FBI of hiding evidence connecting Biden to "a $5 million bribery scheme" and asked Marshall what his plans were to get to the bottom of these claims.

READ MORE: Nazi-promoting ex-Trump staffer claims to be working with GOP lawmakers in Hunter Biden probe

Marshall responded that his hands were tied because "the people of Pennsylvania, the people of Georgia, the people of Arizona and Nevada, they gave us a Democrat-controlled Senate."

He then suggested that the only way to "change all this" was for voters to elect more Republicans.

Watch the video below or at this link.
https://www.rawstory.com/maria-bartiromo-2660738344/

 

Flopped?
Why, they have only just begun, hell it hasn't even been a year yet, has it?
They got a lot of catching up to do!

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Investigations
8 years
1 criminal indictment
no convictions
no perp walk
no jail time

 

Civil, not criminal.

 

You've got to be kidding me! They've been investigating Biden since before the election.

 

Yeah, that changes things entirely! Not!