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Comer’s Investigation Will Fail
When the chips are down, I pride myself on being the optimist at the table. I have followed the work of Comer and his Oversight Committee, anxiously watching the progress of their investigation, and been amazed at the results: corruption of several Biden family members, shell committees with no purpose, millions of dollars into Biden family bank accounts—the list goes on. But after these results were reported, after months of tedious review of the data and interviews of people connected to the story, the New York Times finally clarified the true situation for me when they said there was no evidence of wrongdoing:
Nothing will happen to Biden or his family.
I knew that the evidence of media collusion was overwhelming, but I had to hope that someone—anyone—in the legacy media at a large newspaper would start the ball rolling. After all, this despicable series of events is the story of the decade, if not the century. Hundreds of lies have been told. Crimes have been ignored. Millions of dollars have been exchanged. Collusion with international figures has been identified.
No one cares.
If the DOJ chooses to disregard subpoenas that have been issued, there is essentially nothing that can be done. Trying to work through the court system for those who are not cooperating will be laborious and time-consuming. From what I have discerned, there is no recourse. This is the document that explains the steps that can be taken to enforce subpoenas. If you see some practical steps in the document that would be useful in this situation, let me know.
Christopher Wray wrote a long letter explaining why the FBI would not release a form they had in their possession, that said, in part :
The FBI explained that confidential human sources are ‘critical to the work of FBI as well as other members of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities.’
‘Department of Justice policy strictly limits when and how confidential human source information can be provided outside of the FBI,’ the letter states.
‘You have asked for what you say is a ‘precise description’ of an ‘alleged criminal scheme’ contained in is a single FD-1023 report. You express concern that the FBI has inappropriately ‘failed to disclose’ such a report ‘to the American people,’ the FBI states. ‘It is critical to the integrity of the entire criminal justice process and to the fulfillment of our law enforcement duties that FBI avoid revealing information—including unverified or incomplete information— that could harm investigations, prejudice prosecutions or judicial proceedings, unfairly violate privacy or reputational interests, or create misimpressions in the public.’
The FBI said ‘even confirming the fact of the existence (or nonexistence) of an investigation or a particular piece of investigative information can risk these serious harms,’ which is ‘why it is—and has long been— standard practice for law enforcement agencies to decline to confirm or deny such a fact.’
‘Thus, your request for a single FD-1023 report that you say includes a ‘precise description’ of an ‘alleged criminal scheme’ risks the harms that our confidentiality rules protect against,’ the FBI wrote.
And now the FBI informant who shared the information about that report can’t be located.
To back up my perception, I encourage you to go to youtube and watch videos of Senate and House committee members interviewing people and asking them why they aren’t responding to requests for data and information. The first is an interview with Senator Rand Paul; the second is an interview with Christopher Wray, and there are several others listed on the site. In almost every interview, the people basically say that they are following the rules of the department or agency, which supersede any Congresssional requests.
Too bad.
And just today I heard that the DOJ has removed all the members of the IRS investigative team working on the Hunter Biden tax fraud probe.
Funny, that.
I believe that even if Comer’s committee finds specific evidence incriminating Biden, the media will brush it off or delegitimize it.
Even if the committee continues to investigate, it will fail.
Published in Domestic Policy
We saw the same thing with Hillary Clinton (and Bill). Nothing happens if you’re in high office, commit blatant crimes, and are a Democrat. Not so for Donald Trump, of course; not so for a NY Congressman and a few hundred dollars; not so for the longest serving incumbent member of the Supreme Court. Of course, none of those last have committed crimes, but they are and will be hounded. The double standard is stunning, but more so is that half the country seems fine with it.
They think they have secured permanent power and immunity. Maybe they have. (Sigh) It will give strength to President Trump’s “Retribution Campaign”.
Yep and the GOPe is happy to hide the corruption. The GOP controlled both houses of Congress in 2016 and the leadership went along with the FBI fraud. I assume they were compromised then and are still compromised today.
It will depend on if it benefits the democratic party and/ or a different prominent democrat to remove Joe Biden. I think he is safe as long as it looks like Trump will be the nominee and Trump is losing to/ or even with Joe Biden. If it looks like Trump is not going to be the nominee or Trump opens a large lead in the polls ahead of Joe Biden this will be used to push him out of the way.
After the Hunter Biden laptop suppression, we know the pattern from the MSM. Suppress, suppress, suppress at the time that it can really hurt the Democrats. Drip, drip, drip after the immediate threat is past. Then, after it doesn’t matter anymore, admit that the information was all true. Oh well.
I too am usually an optimist, but not about these types of things. Not after the last 6 years. I’m not even a pessimist. Just older and wiser.
It is cleaner if the agencies fix themselves instead of being fixed by the people. The FBI should consider the former.
If any Federal government agency went after Biden or his family on Federal charges, he would pardon everyone including himself . . .
Congress ought to offer incentives to do so (in the form of budget cuts in the current debt negotiations, as an example of more to come).
If we treat it as an issue separate from the current debt (non)-negotiations, it’s not going to go anywhere useful.
I won’t hold my breath. I think they believe they are invincible.
The FBI+CIA+NSA+DOS insiders are the most powerful force ever assembled in the known universe.
When we began speaking about the Deep State, I never imagined all the parties involved. And I wonder if I’ve identified all of them: Congress, the Executive branch, probably people in every department (including the administrative state), the intelligence agencies, and corporate America. Have I left anyone out?
Edit: how could I forget the media?
That’s a mighty nice budget you got there, Merrick. It would be a pity if something was to … happen … to it.
You know, I wish defunding was an option. But NO ONE would have the guts to vote for that.
There are also the think tanks, the nonprofits, and academia.
The courts. All those DC judges go to the same cocktail parties. Do you remember how Strzok and Paige joked about how their friend “Rudolph Contreras” was the FISC judge?
Academia & the 2+ stars in the military.
Maybe it would be easier to list those who are not included in the Deep State.
I’m not. I retired . . .
I am to the point where I think if you have a star you need to go.
Me, too. The Deep State is like the Party in Orwell’s 1984. It is, to the first order, anyone whose loyalties can be commanded by centralized government by money or ideology. There are different and attenuated levels to the Party. But all have come up with reasons why they are worth the coin doing work on behalf of “the people”. This is why limited central government was key to preserving a constitutional republic. Even a mindset of service, if directed by a central authority, has the potential for corrupting a constitutional republic. As they say: “The path to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Seven Days in May was Progressive Projection. The military doesn’t take over until it is in service of the Left.
What the political elites are saying to us is, “Yeah we did it – so what. What are you going to do about it?” So, what are we going to do about it? I suppose it depends on where you are at in your life’s journey as to what actions you are willing and able to do. I know one things, life never turns out the way you hope for or think, and change is coming good, bad, or indifferent.
Change is guaranteed, Ronin. Let’s hope it’s for the better, in spite of their machinations!
Please do not become like those Ricochet members who have all given up hope and thrown in the towel. The situation is not nearly as bleak as it seems. True, the Biden administration holds all the cards on prosecution, at least for the next 18 months, but “legacy media” has very little impact on public opinion these days. If I remember correctly, something like only 20% of Americans have strong faith in our news media, and and even smaller percentage actually watch national news on any regular basis. Besides, CNN is covering the scandal without restraint:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/30/politics/hunter-biden-investigation-what-matters/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/11/politics/hunter-biden-investigations-what-matters/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/house-gop-memo-biden-family/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/politics/jim-jordan-mike-turner-cia-hunter-biden-laptop/index.html
A Trafalgar poll shows that nearly 2/3rd’s of Americans believe that Joe Biden is compromised by China because of his family’s hanky-panky. The word is actually getting out. Don’t pay any attention to the New York Times. They are not much more relevant than the man behind the curtain in the Land of Oz.
https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/news/nat-issues-biden-china-0410/
Now perhaps, like Hilllary, Joe and his son will not be prosecuted for the next 18 months. But don’t forget that despite her get out of jail free card, Hillary was roundly despised by many Democrats who could not bring themselves to vote for her, or voted for Trump. The Hillary e-mail and foreign money influence scandals did have an impact on the 2016 election, handing us Donald Trump, who could not have beaten a clean democrat opponent. 2016 was a low turnout for a presidential election because of the clouds that hung over both candidates.
I can wait, Steve, but I’m skeptical about whether the Republicans will take action. That’s not their M.O., but I will cheer them on if they do.
You left out academia and the Celebrity-Americans.
Both were mentioned in an earlier comment, as well as some other groups.
I agree that the public is less influenced by and skeptical of the legacy media-government mouthpieces. But the question is whether the people are still in charge? I think the “uniParty” is real because it is so useful to enrich the participants and limit the true opposition. You saw how indifferent the establishment was to 2020 irregularities. Why would they not do the same in 2024 regardless of public sentiment?
When you talk about “the establishment” or the “uniparty” being indifferent to the 2020 election irregularities, I don’t think it tells me anything useful. More specifically, democrats have been more supportive of less strenuous election practices so that people will be able to cheat. However, in nearly every single State with a republican legislature or governor, and some not, there has been a flurry of tightening voting restrictions in order to avoid the fiasco of 2020. The Heritage Foundation set up some criteria to rank voting integrity for each State. They mark an improvement in 14 States just from 2021 thru the 2022 mid-term elections, not all of them Red States. They recorded a slight deterioration (the lowest possible) in only two States, Rhode Island and Wyoming.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/08/16/a-midyear-look-shows-improvement-in-state-election-integrity-laws/
Republican’s have always had to win by more than the margin of fraud. I believe that the margin of fraud increased significantly in 2020; however, there were also ongoing realignments in voting patterns. 2020 is a bit of a roraschach test. I think it is unlikely Biden won that absent a fair amount of fraud; however, it is a defensible position that the realignment in the suburbs is the deciding factor. CoVid is an interesting variable that may really make 2020 an entirely sui generis event. I think that given the ambiguity people retreated to their priors. Trump skeptics favor the realignment theory. Trump partisans favor the fraud theory. The gambit of people in between come down along that spectrum. I am not necessarily disagreeing with your point. I am just offering an alternative possibly less damning explanation for certain elected Republican’s behavior.