A sad day in America!

Mike Johnson Basically Admitted That Biden Impeachment Push Is a Partisan Sham: Report

“In a closed-door meeting, the House Speaker apparently suggested that Republicans can de-prioritize ousting Biden, given his waning popularity in the polls.”

Mike Johnson Faces MAGA Fury

The Impeachment Hearing begins….

This is AMAZING:

This explains everything:

Timeline in Ukraine Probe Casts Doubt on Giuliani’s Biden Claim

“U.K. Probe

Questions about the potential Ukraine conflict resurfaced with recent reports of a video in which Joe Biden described how he’d threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees from Ukraine unless its leaders dismissed Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. The New York Times reported on May 1 that Hunter Biden had a stake in the outcome because at the time he was on the board of Zlochevsky’s company, where he was paid as much as $50,000 a month for his work.

Hunter Biden joined the board in April 2014, two months after U.K. authorities requested information from Ukraine as part of a probe against Zlochevsky related to money laundering allegations. Zlochevsky had been minister of environmental protection under then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in February 2014 after mass protests.

After the U.K. request, Ukrainian prosecutors opened their own case, accusing Zlochevsky of embezzling public funds. Burisma and Zlochevsky have denied the allegations.

The case against Zlochevsky and his Burisma Holdings was assigned to Shokin, then a deputy prosecutor. But Shokin and others weren’t pursuing it, according to the internal reports from the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office reviewed by Bloomberg.

In a December 2014 letter, U.S. officials warned Ukrainian prosecutors of negative consequences for Ukraine over its failure to assist the U.K., which had seized Zlochevsky’s assets, according to the documents.

Those funds, $23.5 million, were unblocked in 2015 when a British court determined there wasn’t enough evidence to justify the continued freeze, in part because Ukrainian prosecutors had failed to provide the necessary information.

No Action

Shokin became prosecutor general in February 2015. Over the next year, the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund criticized officials for not doing enough to fight corruption in Ukraine.

Shokin took no action to pursue cases against Zlochevsky throughout 2015, said Kasko, who was Shokin’s deputy overseeing international cooperation and helping in asset-recovery investigations. Kasko said he had urged Shokin to pursue the investigations.

The U.S. stepped up its criticism in September 2015, when its ambassador to Ukraine, during a speech, accused officials working under Shokin of “subverting” the U.K. investigation.

Kasko resigned in February 2016, citing corruption and lawlessness in the prosecutor general’s office.

The U.S. plan to push for Shokin’s dismissal didn’t initially come from Biden, but rather filtered up from officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Embassy personnel had called for U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine to be tied to broader anti-corruption efforts, including Shokin’s dismissal, this person said.

Biden’s threat to withhold $1 billion if Ukraine didn’t crack down on corruption reportedly came in March. That same month, hundreds of Ukrainians demonstrated outside President Petro Poroshenko’s office demanding Shokin’s resignation, and he was dismissed.”

I never understood the Comer/Jordan/GOP logic here. Shokin refuses to investigate Burisma yet Burisma is going to bribe folks to get Shokin fired? Anyone see a problem with that logic? A Twitter exchange – a thread – I tried to coach up a MAGA person

A Fact Check:

This is AWESOME!

Democrats answer:

A great write-up on what the TRUTH is:

This is amazing – on FoxNews!

He was a House GOP witness…. (Whistleblowers have not been a House GOP strong suit)

Hunter Biden business associate testifies he has no knowledge of wrongdoing by Joe Biden

Devon Archer said the opposite of what Republicans claimed

“It is true, Archer said, that in December 2015, Zlochevsky and Burisma were under a lot of pressure. But Shokin was not a cause of that pressure, he testified — Shokin was an asset.”

“In fact, as Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) pointed out in questioning Archer, Shokin had himself helped relieve some of that pressure on Burisma. Those assets in London? They were unfrozen in part because Shokin refused to assist a British investigation into Zlochevsky, Goldman noted.

“This goes to the idea that Shokin, who was prosecutor general in 2015, was good for Burisma,” Goldman said.

“Uh-huh,” Archer replied.

When Biden traveled to Ukraine in December 2015 — a trip that was announced publicly before the phone call that Jordan and Comer implied had triggered it — he joined other international leaders in condemning Shokin’s performance. (This was not, as Jordan claimed on Fox News, the “starting [of] pressure” on Shokin.) Archer testified that he was told by Burisma’s team in Washington that this pressure from Biden “was bad for Burisma.”

Archer agreed that the fact that “Shokin did not pursue corruption investigations against Burisma’s owner, effectively shielding the owner from prosecution,” as Goldman articulated it, meant that Shokin’s ouster put Burisma and Zlochevsky at more risk, not less.

More broadly, Archer severely undercut Republican claims about Hunter Biden’s interactions with his father.”

You can tell when James Comer is trying to smear the Bidens. His lips are moving.

Their big whistleblower was indicted LAST NOVEMBER! “Per the docket, unsealed on Tuesday, the indictment came down on Nov. 1, 2022.”

The Wild Story Of Gal Luft, James Comer’s ‘Missing,’ Now-Indicted Hunter Biden Witness

“James Comer’s ‘missing’ Biden witness was under federal indictment all along.”

A great twitter thread:

What is it with House GOP and Whistleblowers? They are never who they are promised to be – and Chuck Grassley promised us audio tapes weeks ago!

Back in May (before Trump was indicted for his documents),

House Republican Report Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by President Biden

“After months of investigation and many public accusations of corruption against Mr. Biden and his family, the first report of the premier House G.O.P. inquiry showed no proof of such misconduct.”

Since Trump has been indicted,

The Flaw in the latest Joe Biden-Ukraine Bribery ‘scandal’ is the lack of logic in the hoax. The IMF, World Bank, EU and others wanted the prosecutor fired in Ukraine for NOT investigating Burisma. HOW does Biden profit FROM Burisma for helping get that done?

‘Maybe they don’t exist’: Republicans question legitimacy of alleged audio recordings of Biden bribery scheme

“Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa claimed on the Senate floor earlier this week that the foreign national who allegedly bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter has 17 audio recordings of their conversations but questioned whether those tapes even existed in an interview with CNN days later.

“I don’t even know where they are. I just know they exist, because of what the report says. Now, maybe they don’t exist. But how will I know until the FBI tells us, are they showing us their work?” Grassley said Thursday.”

VERIFY: C-Span website lets users create any headline for news clips, like ‘Joe Biden Confesses to Bribery’

“As for this video, the Verify team watched it and at no time does the former VP confess to any bribery, plus C-Span did not create this headline. 

So, we can verify no, Joe Biden did not confess to bribery in this video.”

Does a C-SPAN Video Show Joe Biden ‘Confessing to Bribery’?

“The U.S. may have pushed for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor, but not for the reasons implied in a video clip.”

“Moreover, among the reasons the U.S. and others sought Shokin’s ouster was his failure to assist with or pursue an investigation of Burisma Holdings’ owner:”

Some Facts,

Fact check: Biden leveraged $1B in aid to Ukraine to oust corrupt prosecutor, not to help his son

“Joe Biden leveraged aid to remove top prosecutor as part anti-corruption efforts
It’s true that Joe Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to persuade Ukraine to oust its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in March 2016. But it wasn’t because Shokin was investigating Burisma. It was because Shokin wasn’t pursuing corruption among the country’s politicians.

As European and American diplomats pressed Ukraine to clean up its corruption, they focused on Shokin’s leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which he took over in February 2015.

Mike Carpenter, who served as a foreign policy adviser to the then-vice president, told USA TODAY that Shokin “never went after any corrupt individuals at all” and “never prosecuted any high-profile cases of corruption.”

Facts,

Envoys pushed to oust Ukraine prosecutor before Biden

“EU and US officials dispute Trump’s claim former vice-president acted to protect son”

Facts,

EU hails sacking of Ukraine’s prosecutor Viktor Shokin

“The European Union has welcomed the dismissal of Ukraine’s scandal-ridden prosecutor general and called for a crackdown on corruption, even as the country’s political crisis deepened over efforts to form a new ruling coalition and appoint a new prime minister.

Ukraine’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to fire Viktor Shokin, ridding the beleaguered prosecutor’s office of a figure who is accused of blocking major cases against allies and influential figures and stymying moves to root out graft.

“This decision creates an opportunity to make a fresh start in the prosecutor general’s office. I hope that the new prosecutor general will ensure that [his] office . . . becomes independent from political influence and pressure and enjoys public trust,” said Jan Tombinski, the EU’s envoy to Ukraine.”

So the EU, IMF and World Bank all wanted Viktor Shokin fire for NOT investigating corruption.

IMF and World Bank say Ukraine corruption fight is threatened

“The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Thursday said they were concerned about attacks on Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions, joining the United States and European Union in warning against threats to Ukraine’s efforts to fight graft.

The two banks are among the largest financial contributors to a $40 billion bailout package given to Ukraine to shore up and reform its economy after the 2014 Maidan protests ousted the Kremlin-backed president, Viktor Yanukovich.

But perceived backsliding on reform commitments has delayed billions of dollars in IMF loans and tested the patience of foreign allies, even as Kiev pushes for closer EU integration and increased foreign investment.”

No bribe was needed GOP. No bribe ever took place.

Trump Revives False Narrative on Biden and Ukraine

“As we have reported more than once last year, Biden traveled to Kyiv as vice president and warned Ukraine’s then-president, Petro Poroshenko, that the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees until Ukraine removed its prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, who was widely viewed as corrupt.

At the time, the international community and anti-corruption advocates in Ukraine were also calling for Shokin to be removed from office for his failure to aggressively prosecute corruption.

But Trump has repeatedly distorted the facts about Biden’s work in Ukraine to baselessly accuse his Democratic rival of seeking Shokin’s removal to help his son, Hunter, who at the time was a board member of a Ukraine gas company called Burisma. He left the board in 2019.

In Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 14, Trump cited “explosive documents” published earlier that day by the New York Post to revive his widely discredited claim that Biden “went to Ukraine and threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid if they did not fire the prosecutor that was investigating his son and the company that his son worked for.”

As we’ve written, there’s no evidence Hunter Biden was being investigated.”