Skip to content

They Were Warned

Here’s a NYT gift link to a thorough deconstruction of the “confidential informant” (dare I say) hoax with which the GOP planned to impeach Biden. Read it all if you have the time. An excerpt:

In May 2023, Senator Charles E. Grassley, a chief antagonist of President Biden, strode to the Senate floor with some shocking news: He had learned, he said, of a document in the F.B.I.’s possession that could reveal “a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden.”

Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, suggested to any Americans listening that there was a single document that could confirm the most sensational corruption allegations against Mr. Biden — and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was engaging in a coverup.

“Did they sweep it under the rug to protect the candidate Biden?” he asked conspiratorially.

Over the next few months, Mr. Grassley’s quest to make public the allegation — laid out in an obscure document known as an F.B.I. Form 1023 — became a fixation, and a foundation of the growing Republican push to impeach Mr. Biden as payback for Democrats’ treatment of former President Donald J. Trump.

At the center of it all was the unsubstantiated accusation that Mr. Biden had taken a $5 million bribe from the executive of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.

But what neither Mr. Grassley nor any of the other Republicans who amplified the claims said in their breathless statements was that F.B.I. officials had warned them repeatedly to be cautious about the accusation, because it was uncorroborated and its credibility unknown.

All that the form proved, federal law enforcement officials explained, was that a confidential source had said something, and they had written it down. And now federal prosecutors say the claim was made up.

But the cautions Republicans received from the start about the materials did not stop them from repeating the unverified allegation hundreds of times over many months, in official settings and interviews on right-wing media outlets.

Read the whole thing. They knew it was bogus. They did not care.

People have been warning about Russian influence on the GOP since 2015. Trump’s weird affinity for Vladimir Putin exacerbated all the suspicions. This has now become so obvious that you’s have be brain damaged not to admit it and see that it is detrimental to the United States. This is just the latest revelation that points toward the Republican Party being so Trump-addled that they are literally selling out the country for their Dear Leader.

Published inUncategorized