Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, spoke out this week to criticize and expose the truth around a recent subpoena issued with the support of Oversight panel chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the Senate Budget Committee.
The two pushed federal law enforcement authorities for an ostensibly unclassified document alleged to describe a scheme when President Joe Biden was in office as vice president alongside Barack Obama to exchange some kind of financial kickback for some unspecified policy decision. A letter from the two Republicans characterized what’s been claimed to have taken place as involving “the exchange of money for policy decisions.” Although it’s unclear — to say the least — there is any kind of verifiable truth to these allegations, Comer and Grassley certainly didn’t seem to hesitate to publicize vague details of the situation, allowing another expansion of Republicans’ promotion of claims of corruption around the Bidens.
Raskin characterized the allegations at issue as originating in a time period when it’s already known figures like Rudy Giuliani were seeking and pushing claims about Biden. Those efforts connected directly to Trump’s first impeachment, which grew from allegations of the then-president and his team exerting pressure on Ukrainian authorities to take investigative moves that could be favorable to Donald’s campaign for re-election. Outside official government channels, other efforts to dredge up politically damaging details on the Biden family continued.
These ambitions have been taken up these days by House Republicans, who continue focusing on Hunter Biden, a son of the current president. Unlike Trump’s own sons and daughters, there’s no apparent indication of a political ambition from Hunter, and it’s also unclear there’s any confirming evidence implicating the president in business arrangements undertaken by members of his family while he’s been in office in various roles, at least where any such deal would financially benefit him.
Comer and Grassley tied their demands for materials from federal law enforcement to information on those materials allegedly provided to Grassley’s office. “Committee Republicans are recycling unsubstantiated claims floated by Senate Republicans by issuing a subpoena to the FBI to require the release of a June 2020 tip from an unknown informant,” Raskin said in prepared remarks. “During this same time period, Rudy Giuliani and Russian agents, sanctioned by Trump’s Treasury Department, were peddling disinformation aimed at interfering in the 2020 presidential election. Given Chair Comer’s commitment to ‘dismantle’ the FBI, it’s no surprise that he would rely on these unverified tips to attack President Biden in one more baseless partisan stunt.”
