Jim Jordan has spent too much time on his back. The recent spate of false testimony by Comrade Comer’s whistleblowers may have taken his probe into the Biden family to new depths— ones involving GOP complicity in a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at helping Donald Trump in his quest to become a mini Putin. In a previous diary, I had used my “Holmsian” powers of deduction to sniff out what Comer and his tag team partner have yet to figure out— the case against the Bidens is a Russian plot. As predictions go, this one was a layup. Here was my take a few days ago:
All indications suggest the likelihood that Smirnov is a Russian sleeper agent who has infiltrated U.S. intelligence since at least 2010 and that his efforts were directed since 2016 toward advancing the political fortunes of Vladimir Putin’s American lackey.
Lo and behold, as the story unfolded we learn this to be true.
Now it is fair to wonder whether Gym shorts and his sidekick were in on the plot. For those who have been following the bogus investigation into Hunter Biden, it is clear that Republican operatives feeding information to Jordan and some of his House colleagues were using Hunter Biden’s unfortunate past as a ne’er-do-well as a platform to tar his father. Republicans whose past history includes the dirty tricksters in the Nixon White House, Lee Atwater’s smears, and the scurrilous “swiftboating” attack on John Kerry have jumped the shark on their depravity. Their use of unsubstantiated charges brought by unprincipled witnesses proves that they will stoop to any depth to win an election. Biden’s history as a “slow-shooting star” in political terms left a career path strewn with stops and starts that included a few self-inflicted wounds. His personal history of deep losses and an abiding need to protect his family was for operatives within and beyond the Republican Party a soft target for their plot to destroy him, as they intend to destroy the nation, from within. Cue the age assault-- he is our oldest president because his road was long and bumpy. Insinuate he has lost a step, a few feet off his fastball, and point to his lifelong battle with a stammer. Lastly, having lost a wife and two children in tragedies that would challenge most men, target his remaining son, and insinuate that the father who never failed to support him through his darkest hours was, instead, a partner in his personal troubles. Shameless is a word that comes to mind for these new Republican henchmen, the wonder is who has signed on as their hitmen. Smirnov’s connection to Russian intelligence tells us it is Vladimir Putin.
The sum total of Joe Biden’s life experiences— of his successes and mistakes— have been played out in public and are the source of his superpower, wisdom. In comparison, his opponent’s journey was different. He was raised to be uncaring and self-indulgent. His mentors were craven and vengeful. Wisdom wasn’t even on his map because there are no shortcuts to get you there. The Trumps are all about the shortcut and in 2016 they found one that went through Mother Russia. They have used it and been used by the Russian state ever since.
The House Judiciary subcommittee’s probe has taken a similar route as Comer and Jordan have callously built a Russian house of cards to frame false and misleading accusations against the Biden family. In July of 2022, their first whistleblower, Gal Luft, was indicted for serving as an unregistered foreign agent for Chinese interests. Luft fled to Hong Kong as the GOP tried to explain why their whistleblower was on the lam in Hong Kong refusing to defend himself from the charges.
For their part, Republicans tried to salvage Luft’s proposed testimony by arguing that his disappearance was somehow indicative of his veracity rather than guilt:
“We definitely want to hear more about his allegations and we want to see the notes from the [Brussels] meeting,” Comer told Fox News Monday night. “They sent six FBI [and DOJ officials], according to Gal Luft, to Brussels to interview him. Obviously they were concerned about something he had to say. There’s some level of credibility here.”
— NYPost, “‘Missing’ Biden corruption witness Dr. Gal Luft hit with federal charges,” by Samuel Chamberlain and Miranda Devine
Alexei Smirnov, the GOP’s next best hope of smearing the Bidens, was released on bail Tuesday by a Las Vegas magistrate judge. Despite the experience with Luft, Smirnov’s lawyers asserted that he had no reason to flee prosecution. He was released with an ankle bracelet and a prayer. Who is he? Who sent him? are all questions for the naive and uninformed. Handcuffed and confronted by the FBI, Smirnov admitted that his testimony was fabricated by Russian intelligence and served up to him to damage Biden’s campaign against Trump.
In the wings, a third House committee squealer has popped up just in time to continue the swiftboating of the Bidens. Tony Bobulinski was briefly associated with Hunter in 2017 and is a Navy veteran. In October 2020, in an attempt to affect the presidential race with an “October surprise” Bobulinski showed up and claimed to have emails and other documents…
“that showed then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden profited off his son’s business ventures in China, allegedly cashing in on his family name and status as the former vice president.”
Biden survived the attack and went on to soundly defeat Trump that November. Now, after “witnesses” have been dropping like Putin adversaries out a window, Tony returns to replay his role as Biden spoiler. If this reminds you of the whack-a-mole approach to investigating by less-than-serious GOP committee members, then it is relevant to read the excerpts of his interview before Comer’s COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY held last week. An excellent diary submitted earlier by David in NYC bears reading as it details the series of emails submitted by Bobulinski that show that the president was NOT involved in the deal and that the proof was in the very documents submitted by the interviewee. Right-wing outlets like The Wall Street Journal and FOX News have been shot down by other outlets such as Forbes which deduced from the interview that,
...Bobulinski’s claims have never been corroborated, and at least eight other business partners, including business partners James Gilliar and Devon Archer, consultant Mervyn Yan and art gallery owner Georges Bergès, all testified to the House committee that President Biden had no involvement in Hunter’s deals, any connection to loans or payments, or even discussed his son’s businesses with them, according to transcripts obtained by CNN.
— Forbes, “Who Is Tony Bobulinski? Hunter Biden’s Business Partner Testifies In Biden Impeachment Inquiry,” by Zachary Folk
Stay tuned for information tying Bobulinski to the other discredited accusers. When confronted with the admission by Smirnov that he was indeed sent to his committee by Russians, Jim Jordan had this response. “It is what it is!!”
Jordan who has left most of the defense of the failed witnesses to his sidekick, James Comer, was confronted by CNN reporter Ranu Raju:
Raju: You said the 1023 is the most corroborating piece of information
Jordan: It doesn't change those fundamental facts
Raju: But it's not true.
Jordan: Well, I mean, it is what it is,
— The New Republic
And, to be clear, what it is is Russian disinformation.
If it looks like a duck,,,
We are left with a rather simple deduction of our own, Comer and Jordan are either incredibly naive or complicit. What has become clearer in recent days is that the appearance of misconduct— the smear— is more important than truth. It hurts as much and lasts just as long after being piped into the right-wing disinformation media machine. Twitter dee, twitter dumb.
There are no real policy issues the GOP wishes to raise to defeat Biden in November. If there were, Jordan and Comer as Trump's attack dogs would be focusing on them in their effort to regain the White House. Instead, they have resorted to Russian disinformation planted by enemy operatives and served up by Comer’s committee. It is what it always was, foreign interference in our presidential politics. We now know that Comer and Jordan are aware of the source of their case against Biden and the fact that they continue their bogus probe suggests that they themselves have dirty hands and are Putin’s pawns.
I am reminded of one of the first and most alarming attacks unleashed on Biden in 2020. It was in response to charges of sexual misconduct by Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. More than 20 women had come forward at the time to assert that they had been sexually attacked by Trump. Perhaps to fend off the issue in his campaign against Biden in 2020, in March 2020, a former Senate staffer named Tara Reade came forward and accused Biden of a single sexual assault she claimed occurred in 1993 in the Senate corridors. Her accusation was a part of the “unwanted hugs and touches” campaign that appeared out of nowhere that year to imply that Biden was no better in that regard than his opponent. Reade’s charges were in conflict with the recall of other female staffers of the time who described the workplace under Biden as being professional and not at all threatening to female staffers. Her claims were discredited in 2020 based in part on Reade’s own troubled past and the pushback by Biden’s staff. Reade drifted to the background and the Trump campaign dug for better dirt. In March of last year Reade, defected to Russia. But before she left for Moscow, Reade offered to testify before Congress and reiterate her earlier accusation. Comer, Jordan, et.al didn’t feel the need to take her up on her offer, they had better options. With the recent scandals surrounding the House subcommittee’s witnesses, the Russian smear has been dealt a blow— and yet it refuses to die. Like most political hits on Biden, they all seem to have had Russian roots.
In the words of Jim Jordan, it is what it is, but more importantly in the wake of their committee’s unfounded smears, they are what they are, Putin’s stooges, a fifth column among us.
Quack!
.