#impeachment inquiry

[destielmemenews]

"In a 221-212 vote, all GOP members supported the resolution to formalize the inquiry – including Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who had said earlier this week he was leaning against it."

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[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[tomorrowusa]

« As a former director of emergency management, I know a disaster when I see one. »

— Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL-23), former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, commenting at the shambolic House impeachment inquiry chaired by MAGA Rep. James Comer (R-KY-01).

Among other things, a Republican witness, Prof. Jonathan Turley, had just testified that there was no evidence of impeachable offenses.

Jared Moskowitz was on a roll on Thursday. Watch it for the quote, stay for the white board.

But wait, there's more!

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX-30) weighed in by decrying the total lack of evidence against Joe Biden while pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans who have ignored Donald Trump's non-stop crime spree.

House Republicans are hoping that their "revenge impeachment" will distract Americans from the upcoming Republican government shutdown this weekend. Instead, Thursday's hearing just reminded everybody what a fiasco this year of GOP House control has been.

EDIT: Rep. Jasmine Crockett's party affiliation has been corrected from the original post.

[jonostroveart]

Inquiry

[filosofablogger]

BREAKING NEWS 🤬🤬🤬

This just in … With ONLY NINE DAYS left until the government will shut down for lack of a budget … The Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives, the group that spent three weeks playing games before finally electing the speaker they intended all along, cannot find the time to pass viable appropriations bills that could stand a chance of passing the Senate and getting President Biden’s…

[apoliticalgoose]

Shout out to the Democrats in the House Oversight Committee for having a count down to the government shutdown present during the first impeachment inquiry hearing today. I listened to most of it today and honestly it was such a waste of time for these members of Congress.

[headlinehorizon]

President Biden Faces Allegations of Improper Retention of Classified Records

https://headlinehorizon.com/Politics/Executive/678

Get the latest news on the ongoing impeachment inquiry surrounding President Biden's alleged mishandling of classified documents and the potential implications on national security.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[Dan Piraro]

* * * *

A watershed moment for the truth.

February 16, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

On a day bristling with important news, the criminal indictment of the “star” witness against President Biden and Hunter Biden in the impeachment inquiry was a watershed moment for the truth. Per the indictment, the GOP’s primary source of allegations of corruption against President Biden lied to FBI agents, concocting a fiction for MAGA media outlets and politicians eager to spread slanderous statements.

The revelation that the “impeachment inquiry” against Biden was built on a house of lies comes hard on the heels of an admission from one of the primary proponents of the 2020 election fraud conspiracy theory that it has no evidence to support its allegations of widespread fraud!

Together, the false stories of “Biden’s corruption” and “election fraud” were major components of the GOP playbook in the 2024 presidential election. Those narratives have now collapsed in a spectacular implosion. That collapse is good for President Biden politically—but the immediate political ramification is not the most important point.

The major takeaway is this: The Republican party is built on lies and sustains itself through lies. They know it. We know it. The media knows it. But now, we have proof that the bad-faith headlines, breathless “whataboutism,” and lazy “both-siderism” of the media are part of a disinformation campaign that must stop.

These twin developments are a watershed moment for the truth.

Let’s take a look.

DOJ indicts FBI informant who was the primary source for allegations of corruption against Joe Biden.

The House “impeachment” inquiry has been a conspiracy theory in search of evidence from the start. House Oversight Chair James Comer took testimony from disgruntled IRS agents with no personal knowledge (but plenty of opinions) and from Hunter Biden’s business partner, who said Joe Biden never participated in his son’s business dealings.

Desperate for proof, Republicans turned to a confidential source, Alexander Smirnov, who claimed to have personal knowledge of alleged bribery ($5 million) by then former Vice President Biden arising from Hunter Biden’s involvement in a Ukrainian energy company (“Burisma”).

On Thursday, a grand jury in the Central District of California issued an indictment against Smirnov for lying to the FBI. The indictment is here: US v. Smirnov | Indictment No. 2:24-CR-00091-ODW. For a summary of the indictment and related details, see NYTimes, Ex-F.B.I. Informant Is Charged With Lying Over Bidens’ Role in Ukraine Business.

Per the Times,

The longtime informant, Alexander Smirnov, 43, is accused of falsely telling the F.B.I. that Hunter Biden, then a paid board member of the energy giant Burisma, demanded the money to protect the company from an investigation by the country’s prosecutor general at the time.

Importantly, the indictment alleges a political motivation for Smirnov to lie about Biden:

Mr. Smirnov’s motivation for lying, prosecutors wrote, appears to have been political. During the 2020 campaign, he sent his F.B.I. handler “a series of messages expressing bias” against Joseph R. Biden Jr., including texts, replete with typos and misspellings, boasting that he had information that would put him in jail.

Smirnov’s allegations were demonstrably false, as explained by the Times:

In 2015 or 2016, Hunter Biden promised to protect the company “through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” Mr. Smirnov falsely claimed to his bureau handler in 2020, according to Mr. Weiss, who has charged the president’s son twice over the past year on tax and gun charges. This claim was easily disproved, prosecutors said: Mr. Smirnov was only in contact with Burisma executives in 2017, after Mr. Biden left office — when he “had no ability to influence U.S. policy.” Mr. Smirnov told F.B.I. investigators that he had seen footage of Hunter Biden entering a hotel in Kyiv, Ukraine, that was “wired” by the Russians, suggesting that Russia may have recorded phone calls made by Mr. Biden from the hotel, according to the indictment.

But Mr. Biden had never been to Ukraine, let alone that hotel, prosecutors wrote.

Importantly, the indictment was obtained by special counsel David C. Weiss, who was appointed by Merrick Garland to investigate Hunter Biden. Weiss—who was first appointed as a US Attorney by Donald Trump—has obtained two indictments against Hunter Biden for gun possession and tax evasion charges.

The fact that Smirnov was indicted by the special counsel appointed to investigate Hunter Biden rebuts any notion that the indictment is politically motivated.

Smirnov’s false statements provided the only substantive allegations in the sham “impeachment inquiry” in the House and received massive coverage by an eager news media (especially on Fox News). Those news organizations should retract or correct their previous reporting. It is not enough to report on the indictment of Smirnov.

The most important point is that the GOP’s narrative of a “Biden crime family” is a fiction based on perjured statements provided to the FBI! Tell a friend!

[MORE]

[contemplatingoutlander]

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In an irate letter to the White House, Kevin McCarthy and other congressional Republicans have demanded that President Biden reveal why they are impeaching him. The letter claims that, after Republicans announced their impeachment inquiry, “the White House has stubbornly refused to provide us with any reasons for our doing so.”

The sad thing is this satirical "report" isn't too far from the truth.🤷🏻‍♀️😳😁

[tomorrowusa]

Author and presidential historian Michael Beschloss talks about the radical realignment of the Republican Party since 2012 which turned it into a team of servants for Putin.

Ronald Reagan famously warned Americans about the Evil Empire. He'd be disappointed to see the GOP of the 2020s willingly working for a secret police colonel from that Evil Empire.

NATO is now stronger than ever. When Finland joined this year it roughly doubled Russia's land border with NATO countries. Russia's army has proven to be pathetic. A country less than a third of Russia's size has inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties on Russia, destroyed thousands of its armored vehicles, and has even sunk several of its warships.

Republicans want to throw Putin a lifeline and help him threaten American allies in Europe. This is because Donald Trump is a Putin puppet and because Trump is butthurt about President Zelenskyy not being able to provide him with "dirt" during the infamous perfect phone call.

The border problem with Russia is exponentially worse than any border problem with Mexico. Mexico is just an excuse to enable House GOP members to kowtow to Trump who, in turn, is in thrall to Putin.

[softpastelqueer]

Seeing swing voters in the districts that flipped Republican in 2022 now whine they feel betrayed and duped by the GOP is so exhausting to hear because of how phony and disingenuous it all is

You don’t get to whine about voting in a fascist because you’re somehow now shocked they actually meant it

[filosofablogger]

When Congress Returns ...

Congress will return in the next couple of weeks, after a more-than-month-long paid vacation.  Now, there is much that needs to be addressed when they finally decide to take up their seats, the most urgent being passing the appropriations bills to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September.  Or, short of that, passing a stopgap continuing resolution bill to keep the government…

[jkanelis]

Biden inquiry: waste of time ... and money

Congressional Republicans approved the President Biden impeachment inquiry a few months ago. Their aim — and, yes, their desire — is to find something on which to impeach the president. They have come up empty. There’s no “there, there,” to borrow a phrase from the late Gertrude Stein.  It just appears to me that there never will be evidence of a “high crime” or a “misdemeanor” on which to…

[macwantspeace]

Acyn - Jeanine: You don't blow the wad or the witness at the inquiry. Jared - paraphrase: Never blow the witness at an inquiry. You do it at the trial. btw - there is a delightful five minute Vimeo with Jared Moskowitz shredding the inquiry while using multiple graphic aids.