And more trouble for Comer...

[The Barbarian]

Former FBI informant charged with lying about the Bidens’ role in Ukraine business, undercutting GOP impeachment inquiry ​

Alexander Smirnov, 43, is facing charges in connection with lying to the FBI and creating false records. He was arrested Thursday at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, after his arrival in the US from overseas, and will make his initial appearance in federal court Thursday afternoon.

CNN is working to determine whether Smirnov has an attorney.

The indictment alleges that Smirnov’s story to the FBI “was a fabrication, an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts that had actually occurred but at a later date than he claimed and for the purpose of pitching Burisma on the Defendant’s services and products, not for discussing bribes to [Joe Biden] when he was in office.”

Congressional Republicans have championed Smirnov’s now-discredited allegations for roughly a year, though not by name. They fought with the FBI to obtain memos about what Smirnov told investigators and publicly released the materials over the FBI’s objections. The congressional Republicans repeatedly praised Smirnov as “credible” and put his uncorroborated claims front-and-center in their impeachment inquiry into the president.

While announcing the impeachment inquiry, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said “a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family.” The FBI is now using some of the same memos that congressional Republicans released as part of their indictment against Smirnov.

“For months we have warned that Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts,” said Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, in a statement to CNN.

“We were right and the air is out of their balloon. This is just another instance of Chairmen Comer and Jordan peddling falsehoods based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses,” he added.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/15/politics/former-fbi-informant-charged-biden-burisma/index.html

Comer, who was embarrassed when he was caught lying about the testimony of another witness, seems to have done it to himself, again.

 

[DaisyDay]

Is Comer capable of shame and embarrassment?

 

[Elliewaves]

How the turntables.......

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

All of this bogus allegations are a waste of time and money, imho.

 

[The Barbarian]

The republicans have now given the democrats all the ammunition they need to turn any impeachment motion into a debacle for the GOP.

 

[Brihaha]

Such an unfortunate turn of events for Mr Comer and his republican coalition in the House. I wonder if Comer will give up like three other republican chairs and retire? I think it was the Shapiro guy who said yesterday that house republicans are "cruising for a bruising" in November haha. I always thought it a lame saying as an adolescent but I think it seems apropos today. He's trying to appeal to boomers I believe.

A chaotic US House is losing three Republican committee chairs to retirement in the span of a week

In a single week, the Republican chairs of three U.S. House committees announced they would not be seeking reelection, raising questions about whether the chaos that has reigned this Congress is driving out some of the GOP’s top talent.

apnews.com

These people have the audacity to complain about the very dysfunction they have created. Yet I am of the opinion that each retirement from congress is bringing America closer to an effective, functional government once again. We need real leadership in congress. Even at her advanced age Nancy Pelosi schooled these amateurs. I admire her wherewithal to relinquish her leadership role with grace and respect. Just like that Mccarthy feller.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Such an unfortunate turn of events for Mr Comer and his republican coalition in the House. I wonder if Comer will give up like three other republican chairs and retire? I think it was the Shapiro guy who said yesterday that house republicans are "cruising for a bruising" in November haha. I always thought it a lame saying as an adolescent but I think it seems apropos today. He's trying to appeal to boomers I believe.

A chaotic US House is losing three Republican committee chairs to retirement in the span of a week

In a single week, the Republican chairs of three U.S. House committees announced they would not be seeking reelection, raising questions about whether the chaos that has reigned this Congress is driving out some of the GOP’s top talent.

apnews.com

These people have the audacity to complain about the very dysfunction they have created. Yet I am of the opinion that each retirement from congress is bringing America closer to an effective, functional government once again. We need real leadership in congress. Even at her advanced age Nancy Pelosi schooled these amateurs. I admire her wherewithal to relinquish her leadership role with grace and respect. Just like that Mccarthy feller.

Hopefully the Republican party can reboot.

 

[Elliewaves]

Hopefully the Republican party can reboot.

They are on the verge of being bankrupted so it will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Hopefully the Republican party can reboot.

I wonder what they'll call version 3.0?

v1.0: Whigs
v2.0: Republicans
v3.0: ???

 

[wing2000]

Hopefully the Republican party can reboot.

Too late for that. They had their chance on January 7, 2021 and chose to bow before the MAGA leader. IMO, the US needs a new conservative party....one that actually represents conservative principles.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Comer hypes Ukraine documents that Hur says Biden retained by mistake​

“We want to know which documents Joe Biden mishandled pertaining to Ukraine and China. Because we’ve, as you know, proven, tens of millions of dollars that the Bidens took in from these countries, we believe that one of the classified documents may be on an email that was in Hunter Biden’s laptop to Ukraine at a time when Hunter Biden was trying to prove his worth to Burisma.”

The Facts​

The first email is dated April 13, 2014, a month before Hunter joined the Burisma board, and key lawmakers speculated that Hunter wrote it after gaining access to classified documents. A year ago, we examined the email in detail and concluded instead that it appears to be largely the product of diligent reading of contemporary newspaper and magazine articles.

For instance, in one interview, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said a reference in the email to potential new U.S. sanctions on Russia “certainly might have been” classified information. But five days before the email was sent, Secretary of State John F. Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in widely reported remarks that the U.S. could impose new economic sanctions on Russia because of its actions in Ukraine.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Comer and the other two committee chairs noted that these documents refer to “President Biden’s December 11, 2015 call with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.”

See the problem? The 2014 email — which supposedly contained classified information — was written 20 months before these documents were produced.

(yes, but... Obama time machine.)

As for Biden's retention of documents...

The Hur report also suggests that these documents, while technically classified, are not noteworthy. It noted that transcripts of such calls are “typically classified by default.”

“No jury could reasonably find that the substance of the call between Mr. Biden and the Ukrainian Prime Minister was national defense information,” the report said. “The two exchanged pleasantries and the Prime Minister heaped praise upon Mr. Biden for his December 9, 2015 speech to Ukraine’s parliament. They did not engage in a substantive policy discussion. There may be technical or nuanced reasons to maintain the classification of the call, but no reasonable jury could conclude the call or its contents were national defense information after the end of the Obama administration.”

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Am I the only one, that believes this informant was told to lie about Biden.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Am I the only one, that believes this informant was told to lie about Biden.

He could have been paid to tell the lies.

 

[DaisyDay]

Am I the only one, that believes this informant was told to lie about Biden.

I doubt he was told to as such; more that he was rewarded when he provided the "right" answers.

 

[Vambram]

Hunter's Former Partner Says China Tried to ‘Infiltrate and Compromise’ Biden Family, Obama White House

Tony Bobulinski alleges that China tried to influence the Biden family and Obama White House in dealings with Hunter Biden.

www.dailysignal.com

Tony Bobulinski, who worked with Hunter Biden before blowing the whistle on what he has alleged to be a massive influence-peddling scheme involving President Joe Biden, made the remarks during his opening statement to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Bobulinski alleged that the elder Biden “enabled” a lucrative business arrangement involving his son Hunter and a major energy company tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
He also testified that “Joe Biden’s immediate family members were enriched to the tune of tens of millions of dollars” made from conducting business with shady counterparts, including some based in adversarial nations, during and after Biden’s eight years as vice president.
“The Chinese Communist Party through its surrogate, China Energy Company Limited, or ‘CEFC’—a CCP-linked Chinese energy conglomerate—successfully sought to infiltrate and compromise Joe Biden and the Obama-Biden White House,” Bobulinski told House investigators, according to a transcription of his opening statement.
“I want to be crystal clear: from my direct personal experience and what I have subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was ‘the Brand’ being sold by the Biden family,” he said, adding: “Joe Biden was more than a participant in and beneficiary of his family’s business; he was an enabler, despite being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability.”
After Hunter Biden sent a threatening WhatsApp message in which he invoked his father’s power to a CEFC China Energy associate in July 2017, another company connected to CEFC—which since has ceased to exist—wired $5 million to an enterprise linked to the younger Biden in August 2017, according to the House Oversight committee.

 

[essentialsaltes]

James Comer Admits He Might Have to Throw in the Towel on Biden Impeachment Quest Because ‘The Math Keeps Getting Worse’​

Comer spoke to Spectrum News last week and said the GOP-led House may not even hold a vote based on his committee’s report because the “math keeps getting worse” –referring to both the GOP’s shrinking majority and skepticism inside the Republican conference. The Kentucky Republican, whose investigation has slung bombastic corruption allegations at the president, has yet publicly disclose any concrete evidence of wrongdoing – a fact even some House Republicans admit.

 

[The Barbarian]

Am I the only one, that believes this informant was told to lie about Biden.

He has now admitted that he was given the story from Russian intelligence people.