Grassley's Bribe Recordings Revelation Is Bad News for Biden, But Even Worse for the FBI
These charges are going to reverberate into the 2024 election — and well beyond.
When Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley took to the Senate floor on Monday with his explosive revelation about audio recording of President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, he did more than add another layer to the ever-growing story of alleged corruption in the White House.
He blew the lid off FBI efforts to keep the American people from ever knowing about it.
In an address that would have made headlines from sea to shining sea if it had been a Democrat accusing former President Donald Trump, Grassley described FBI Director Christopher Wray’s attempts to keep a critical FBI document — known as an FD-1023 form — under wraps. Wray even had to be threatened with a contempt of Congress charge if he kept it up.
Then Grassley explained exactly why Wray might have been so determined to do it: The document strengthened already-strong suspicions that the president the FBI directly helped elect via its relationship with Big Tech executives is just as crooked as his notorious son.
“The 1023 produced to the House [Oversight] Committee redacted reference that the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversation with them — 17 such recordings,” he said.
“According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden. According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden.
“These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.”
The document stems from a tip the FBI received in 2020, the same year Trump was impeached over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he suggested the Bidens were engaged in corruption in Ukraine.
In other words, according to Grassley, the FBI has been aware that the man who now holds the presidency of the United States may have been recorded engaging in a bribery scheme during his days as vice president.
Grassley also opened the possibility that Hunter Biden’s mysterious seat on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma — when he had no background in the energy industry or knowledge of the Ukrainian language — might have been at least partly arranged by his father.
In a country where the establishment media went into convulsions over utterly spurious allegations linking Trump to Russian prostitutes, Grassley’s allegation should have been leading the evening news and filling the web pages of newspapers across the land.
But how was it greeted by the establishment media?
As of late Tuesday morning, The Washington Post’s website was topped with news about Trump’s arraignment in Miami, a headline declaring that inflation is slowing but prices are rising, and, of course, the travails of transgender teenagers.
(To be fair, Post national affairs columnist Philip Bump did file an “analysis” piece to dutifully report that “the GOP ‘bribery’ allegations against Biden remain transparently thin.” Remember all those Washington Post headlines about how thin the evidence was against Trump?)
At The New York Times, it was Trump, inflation and the war in Ukraine.
The fact that the president had been accused on the Senate floor — by a veteran senator who commands the respect of both parties — of engaging in bribery didn’t merit a mention.
Fortunately, that didn’t mean the story was completely gone.
On Fox News, host Jesse Watters declared that “this allegation, if true, should lead either to the impeachment or immediate resignation of Joe Biden.”
Senator Grassley just revealed that a highly credible FBI informant says the Burisma exec who allegedly bribed Joe Biden, has 17 audio recordings speaking with Joe and Hunter. This allegation should lead to the impeachment or resignation of Joe Biden, if true.
The FBI tried to… pic.twitter.com/1EOPB7DMyt
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) June 13, 2023
On “The Ingraham Angle,” Florida Rep. Byron Donalds said Grassley’s account fits nicely with what is already known about the Bidens’ activities.
What Senator Grassley says, does pan out.
Money moved through these various LLCs for concealment from investigators & ended up with the Biden family.
Joe LOVES to say the rich need to pay their fair share.
Did YOU pay YOUR taxes on that $5M? pic.twitter.com/CxpFdwzotR
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) June 13, 2023
And on Twitter, the invaluable Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist noted that this accusation against Biden comes at the same time as the indictment against Trump.
“Just horrific what is going on at DOJ,” she wrote. “The FBI coverup of Biden bribery allegations is looking worse and worse, even as Biden Admin trying to imprison Democrats’ top political opponent.”
Just horrific what is going on at DOJ. The FBI coverup of Biden bribery allegations is looking worse and worse, even as Biden Admin trying to imprison Democrats’ top political opponent. https://t.co/vXuw8s3zGV
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) June 12, 2023
It’s a replay of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, in which the establishment media and the lords of social media combined to keep the American people ignorant of the revelations coming out of that laptop on the eve of the 2020 election.
The FBI’s role in that travesty has already been at least partially revealed, thanks to the “Twitter Files.”
Now, Grassley has revealed that the bureau is playing a similar role with its “talk to the hand” treatment of the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee and its chairman, Kentucky Rep. James Comer.
“It’s clear that the Justice Department and FBI will use every resource to investigate candidate Trump, President Trump and former President Trump,” Grassley said, according to a statement released by his office.
“Based on the facts known to the Congress and the public, it’s clear that the Justice Department and the FBI haven’t nearly had the same laser focus on the Biden family.”
That’s a considerable understatement. The FBI’s focus hasn’t been on investigating the Biden family; it’s been exactly the opposite — just as the establishment media outlets haven’t been covering the Bidens so much as covering for the Bidens.
As bad as Grassley’s revelation was for the Bidens, though, it was arguably worse for the FBI.
It was one more counterattack in the Republican Party’s war with the once-untouchable bureau, an open display of distrust within the legislative branch for what is supposed to be the country’s premier law enforcement agency.
It’s clear that Republicans on Capitol Hill have lost faith in the FBI, as have countless millions of Americans — and for very good reason.
In a Monday social media post, Trump declared that he will make an investigation of the Biden family a top priority if he wins the presidency again. Every Republican candidate should vow to do the same. Justice demands it.
Doing that would mean taking on the same FBI and Justice Department that were bent on hamstringing the Trump administration and would be again — just as they would almost certainly be weaponized against any Republican. (It isn’t an accident that former FBI Director James Comey has already endorsed Biden against all comers.)
That means this is a fight that won’t be over in 2024. In fact, it’s likely just getting started.
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