Earlier this month, Republicans in Congress made a shocking allegation: That President Joe Biden was bribed, while he was vice president, by a foreign entity, to the tune of $5 million.
More precisely, the allegation was that someone had come forward, some time ago, with a claim that Biden had received such a bribe, and the FBI had the report of this in its possession. Following a back-and-forth in which members of Congress demanded to see the FBI’s FD-1023 form showing the accusation. Later, some elected officials added that the person making the accusation had recordings of Biden and his son Hunter.
If all of that were true, it would likely comprise a presidency-ending scandal for Joe Biden. But what we know now is much less than that, despite claims by lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) that the claims are unquestionably true. Others on the right claimed that the indictment of Donald Trump was meant as a “distraction” from what was being revealed about the bribery allegation.
The allegation is that the president and his son Hunter were each “bribed” $5 million by Ukrainian energy company Burisma, even though Hunter was already on the board of (and being paid by) the same company.
Joe Biden In the Clear?
And now, some Republicans are acknowledging that the recordings may not actually exist.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told lawmakers this week that “we don’t know if they’re legit or not, but we know that the foreign national claims he has them.”
“We don’t know for sure if these tapes exist,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the House Judiciary Committee chairman, and not usually one to downplay allegations against Democrats, said this week in a radio interview.
“The uncertainty over whether the recordings actually exist is a reminder that while the tip came from a credible career informant, the informant’s source is someone else, and the underlying information, audio and all, remains unverified hearsay,” the Huff Post said of the case.
The Washington Post published an analysis this week looking at where things stand with the bribery allegations.
We know that the FBI document dates back to 2020, at a time when then-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was digging up dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine. It was presented to a U.S. Attorney and did not result in any charges, despite the Trump Justice Department being in place at a time when Trump was running against Biden.
“Republicans are hyping a secondhand allegation from a single source — an allegation that was in the hands of Attorney General William P. Barr’s Justice Department in mid-2020 without leading to criminal charges or, it seems, any specific investigation,” the Post said.
The Post also noted that the Oversight Committee, despite lots of trying, has uncovered no financial evidence of the president receiving a $5 million bribe or, for that matter, any illicit money that President Biden has received at any point. And while Hunter Biden received a great deal of money, the committee has not uncovered that supposed $5 million bribe in any of the president’s son’s financials.
So why has the Congressional GOP gone out on such a tremendous limb?
“It is not hard to figure out why this is unfolding the way it is unfolding. There’s an enormous appetite on the right at the moment for evidence that the FBI and Justice Department are deploying a double standard or that Biden deserves to face criminal charges just as much as former president Donald Trump,” the Post added. “That provides the space that Comer and Grassley are filling, running far ahead of their extremely limited evidence.”
Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
From 19FortyFive
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