James Comer has decided against going directly into battle with the FBI; per the AP, “House Republicans pull back contempt charge against FBI director Wray over Biden doc”:
The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday called off a vote on a contempt of Congress charge against FBI Director Christopher Wray, accepting a last-minute offer by the bureau to allow the full committee access to a confidential document of an unverified tip about President Joe Biden.
Rep. James Comer said in a statement that the committee is removing a contempt resolution against Wray from Thursday’s schedule after receiving an accommodation that would give the full committee access to the document…
The action that played out over the last month against Wray reflects a larger breakdown between Republicans and the FBI that has only intensified this year, with some conservatives talking openly about trying to defund the bureau.
It’s a rift that first opened during the Russia investigation of then-President Donald Trump and has only widened amid the FBI’s wide-ranging criminal investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, which some Republicans view as overly zealous and politicized…
The FBI has called the contempt vote unwarranted considering the bureau had “continuously demonstrated its commitment to accommodate the committee’s request,” while protecting the safety of sources and the integrity of ongoing investigations.
But Comer had consistently said for the past month that the only way for the FBI to comply with the subpoena is to provide an unredacted copy of the document. It’s unclear what made him change course at the last minute…
Would it be irresponsible to speculate?…
Of course, that leaves a whole lot of GOP attention-seekers free to pursue their own interests, and they will not be ignored!!! For instance:
It’s not that an ongoing informant to American law enforcement would be at risk; it is, in Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) presentation, that this was occurring because the secondhand information related to the Bidens, writes Philip Bump in Analysis. https://t.co/f5jA27jDeP
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 8, 2023
Rep. Luna’s highly embroidered biographical claims have been somewhat overshadowed by George Santos’ more sensational fiscal misdeeds, but she’s determined to get her little piece of the spotlight [gift (unpaywalled) link]:
… It does appear to be the case that the FBI expressed concern that, by making public an unredacted version of the interview, the safety of the confidential human source would be at risk. In a statement, Raskin suggested that the interview focused on “recycling stale and debunked Burisma conspiracy theories” — that is, allegations centered on Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. A source that could glean information from people in Ukraine or Russia would understandably be one the FBI would seek to protect.
Notice how Luna frames this, though: The informant would be killed if “unmasked” — “based on the info he has brought forward about the Biden family.” It’s not that someone who was providing information in an ongoing basis to American law enforcement (as this informant was) would be at risk; it is, in Luna’s presentation, that this was occurring because the secondhand information related to the Bidens…
“I think now it’s upwards of 3.3 million impressions just on Twitter alone,” Luna boasted about her tweet to former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon on the Tuesday edition of Bannon’s fringe-right podcast. “Obviously that’s huge, because had it not been for social media I don’t know that this truth would be out there like this. I just simply put out a fact that came out of the briefing in Oversight.”
Not really, of course. She took a concern the FBI has been using about its source from the outset and framed it as being not about the source but about Biden.
As it turned out, though, that was perhaps the most defensible claim she made in her conversation with Bannon…
Bannon, somewhat surprisingly, asked what evidence she and her colleagues had.
“Because of the information that the FBI has,” Luna replied, “proving that he has received a $5 million payment from a foreign national while he was the vice president.”
She made the same claim on Fox News on Tuesday night. If the FBI has such evidence, however, it chose not to bring charges in the middle of 2020, a year when Barr’s boss was up for reelection. The more likely assumption is that Luna is simply exaggerating the narrative that Comer has been building for the past month…
Might be that Bannon’s running a little less flashy-fashy than usual because he’s got troubles of his own.
"Steve Bannon has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., in connection with special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Jan. 6 and former President Donald Trump's efforts to stay in office"https://t.co/KgCQVEDGOF
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) June 7, 2023
Speaking of Santos:
George Santos shows up today to join Steve Bannon at the event to call for the release from federal custody of Chinese billionaire Miles Guo. pic.twitter.com/k4CpvgJDiK
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 4, 2023
Guo finances Bannon’s show. Santos’s aide has connections to Guo.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 4, 2023
Always another twist in the narrative!
US trial for exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui is set for April 2024
Steve Bannon's pal and biz partner Guo (aka Ho Wan Kwok & Miles Kwok) has been jailed since March for running a fraud conspiracy of over $1 billion dollars with financier William Jehttps://t.co/MtkZejaDqn
— Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) June 6, 2023
Manyakitty
What is this Santos guy? Some sort of corruption Zelig? Or is he more of a super lame, malevolent Forrest Gump? Is he even real? Does anyone know for sure he’s not an animated wax figure? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Baud
It doesn’t seem to me that Comer’s getting too much media backing on his efforts, which is good.
Anne Laurie
As far as I can tell… the modern Republican party created a uniquely welcoming ecosystem for a parasite with Santos’ rare combination of grifty greed and spotlight-lust. He’s the epitome of what today’s GOP voters encourage, as opposed to what they say they want: Someone who can’t resist grabbing every dishonest penny, even while loudly drawing attention to himself. It’s not a long-term survival strategy, but at least he’s gotten his name (if that is his name) in the news, if not the history books!
TS
@Baud:
Speaking of media backing, what has Marc Thiessen ever done to gain his place in the media? Today (no I have not read the article) he is lauding Mike Pence as a most decent & honorable man deserving to be the next President of the USA.
SpaceUnit
Five bucks says the “confidential source” is Rudy Giuliani.
bbleh
Am I mistaken, or does the Krayzee Circus seem to be getting more and more, I dunno, desperate? Like maybe the addictive craving of the audience, as with all addictions, requires ever greater and more extreme doses, and at the same time the number of grifters clamoring for attention is growing, which means they have to try to out-crazy each other, and the whole thing is just becoming one big white-noise shriek? Like the speakers are overloading and it can’t be turned up anymore?
Maybe I’m just getting burned out on it. But it feels like the burnout is more general.
Jackie
@Baud: Even Faux News is under impressed.
JPL
@TS: dI’d he also mourn the loss of Pat Robertson
Scout211
I agree. But I think the name is spelled: DONALD TRUMP.
cain
@bbleh: I think pretty much everyone is tired of it. It’s not even clever, it’s just the same tired themes, rehashed for new people. But they are expanding their schtick to include so many new players – Jews, blacks, trans, teachers and so on. Everyone is an enemy of great American republican. They are all failing the republic!
ETA HOLY SHIT – #10??!!!
Baud
@TS:
Obviously, his value is in his independent and unconventional political observations.
Anne Laurie
The ‘confidential source’ was announced by Rudy G, which is one reason the FBI is giving it the hairy eyeball.
Some dude said bad things about Hunter, according to Rudy; the professional security services are not convinced that publicizing that dude’s Sooper Sekrit details won’t give America’s enemies unwarranted access to how these things are done. Because, y’know, Giuliani himself has been investigated for illegal dealings with foreign agents of enemy powers…
Jeffro
Yup!
So (IMHO) a combination of “save our white supremacist savior!” and “we have to tear down criminal mastermind/super-old-and-feeble Smilin’ Joe!”
Scout211
He may not be on the FBI documents but many news reports do place him at the center of the whole sordid mess.
All roads lead to Giuliani in the GOP’s quest for Biden dirt
arrieve
Turned on the tv and David Muir is saying Trump will be indicted in Miami next week.
terraformer
so they’re calling lies now “frames” – as in, Luna “framed XYZ this way”
anything, anything at all but calling lies … lies
Anne Laurie
You’re not wrong! IMO, though, Trump was supposed to be the Final Victor figure for his GOP supporters — the man who would sweep aside the rule of law and install a new thousand-year Reich. As that glorious dream rots apart, we’re getting the actual construct of Repub-fascist fantasies: A pathetic little two-bit thief and swindler who can’t keep his mouth shut to save his own bacon.
And then there’s Steve Bannon, the “smart one”!
Citizen Alan
@Manyakitty: I now suspect Santos might actually be a robot suit operated by Pinky and the Brain given what an absolute farce he is.
Jeffro
@arrieve: trump is tweeting that he was just indicted and must appear at a federal courthouse on Tuesday?
MattF
@Jeffro: I just saw that on the bird site.
arrieve
@Jeffro: I didn’t see Trump’s messages, but ABC News is saying it’s happening Tuesday.
Baud
Time for 🎂?
West of the Rockies
Is Luna attempting to cosplay the 10th Doctor?
Jeffro
OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY
(you get the idea)
Wooooooooot!!!!!1!!!1!
MattF
@MattF: Here’s the tweet.
geg6
I think WG needs to get the cake out.
ETA: Though MSNBC is just saying Trump is claiming he’s been indicted.
Jeffro
OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY
(you get the idea!)
Wooooot!!!!1!!
Jeffro
CHAMPAGNE TIME!!!1!
smith
@bbleh: It’s not just the addiction, but also the ever-tightening circle, or more appropriately spiral, you see in many extreme cults. The crazy bar is set ever higher to prove you are a real true believer and not a heretic. As an example, they’ve recently started attacking Empty Greene for her vote in favor of the debt ceiling compromise (I’ve seen it suggested that she thinks her district is trending purplish, but I think she just cut a side deal with Qevin).
With more and more apostates being cast out, along with the amplification of the crazy far beyond 11, before long it will be just two nutjobs talking jibberish to each other, and each eyeing the other suspiciously.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Lock.
Him.
Up
!
Manyakitty
@Anne Laurie: and yet I fear we haven’t seen the worst of them.
hilts
@Jeffro:
How do we know whether or not Trump is full of shit?
Baud
@hilts:
Trump is always full of shit.
Jeffro
@hilts: I thought we all already knew he was full of shit…but…stopped clocks and all that.
Plus how is he going to fundraise off of the latest (but not last!) chapter in THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!! if he doesn’t get the word out?
eversor
@Jeffro:
Is Trump back on twitter now?
Side note the DC area got hit with a milder version of what NYC is going through for smoke. Sky is all light gray, planes are hazy, there is a haze on the ground, your eyes burn, and tastes like sulfur. When to walk some of the beasties I’m pet sitting my current “condo is a zoo” and just noped right back into the condo. Turned on the air purifiers.
Wyatt Salmanca
@Jeffro:
I consider Trump to be an unreliable narrator.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Jeffro
So far:
Baud
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
👍
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Now it’s on to Fulton county and let’s win there.
Manyakitty
@Citizen Alan: makes as much sense as my initial suspension that Andy Kaufman was going to jump out of his orange asshole suit at some point before the 2016 election.
Omnes Omnibus
Let’s wait until it actually happens. Trump could be saying shit to try to control the narrative.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
Can’t you see them closing in, Donnie, can’t you see them schooling around?
Jeffro
@eversor: my bad, he was “truth socialing”
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Summer of
LoveIndictmentsJeffro
WaPo now reporting on trumpov’s truth social post…
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
It’s gonna be raining ketchup at MAL
Quinerly
MSNBC confirming Trump indicted.
Court Tues.
Randal Sexton
Its BeerIndictment O clock !!! WOOOT !
Tinare
Damn. And me with no champagne to pop.
hueyplong
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh my, an Ambassador Hotel reference.
Bill Arnold
Just a reminder that James Comer has … history.
N.Y. Times offers grotesque whitewash of Rep. James Comer, GOP’s new attack dog – Lengthy profile of Oversight Committee chair James Comer is loaded with folksy details — but misses the real story (RAE HODGE, 2023/03/23)
Baud
GARLAND IS FECKLESS!!!
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Everyone has confirmed. Miami on Tuesday at 3 pm. Wow.
Avalune
NBC is confirming indictment.
Wyatt Salmanca
@Quinerly:
The Eagle has landed.
Manyakitty
@Jeffro: WaPo saying ‘trump says’
PAM Dirac
@Tinare: Same here. We did have an nice bottle of Chablis earlier and I’m arguing that this needs a little more, even if it isn’t bubbly, but the wife says, “tomorrow”. Bummer.
Omnes Omnibus
Looking more reliable…
bbleh
Iacta alea est.
Gonna be … interesting.
Alison Rose
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT YOU LITTLE BITCH
hilts
Mike Pence is desperately clutching his pearls.
worn
I’m at work, so I can’t compose much of a comment. But I thought I should leave this here:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/08/us/trump-indictment-documents#justice-department-charges-trump-in-documents-case
Watergirl – Like you last week, I woke up this morning thinking it was Friday. And it looks like it kinda turned out to be just that, in a virtual way…
ETA: late as usual
lashonharangue
@Baud: No – Garland has the RDA of Feck.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: I know it will happen. Warren told me.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: Well, there’s a list of people who can kiss my ass when he gets indicted, so I don’t want to jump the gun.
Jeffro
On a side note, courtesy of the Pitchbot’s latest tweet, I see that Rich Lowry wants Republican “pearl clutchers” to double down on culture war issues.
It’s weird, knowing that for the first time in (hopefully) ever, Rich Lowry and I agree. =)
GO FOR BROKE, “STARBURSTS!” WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE???
West of the Rockies
@Randal Sexton:
I’m having a Sierra Little Hazy IPA!
smith
Seven counts — is it too much to wish that one of them is espionage?
eversor
@hilts:
Fixed this for you let’s not forget how creepy Pence is.
scav
!!
ETA searching wine! Alas, that’s as hard as I’ve got to hand!
Dan B
@PAM Dirac: Tonight is shopping night so bubbly will be purchased!
Baud
What a good week this has been.
Omnes Omnibus
Remember, there’s still the DC GJ. There could be more to come.
Dan B
@smith: I’d love to have separate counts in DC federal court.
West of the Rockies
@Baud: I think you meant !
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Heh. I think you’re good.
Geminid
@Jeffro: I think Lowry is a DeSantis man. This is reported to be DeSantis’s strategy, to pound social issues.
hueyplong
Oh frabjous day
Calloo callay
He chortled in his joy
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
It’s Smithmas!
🎅 ☃️ 🎄🦌
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I need an official announcement.
Oh man, I was riding home on the bus. Some passengers were giddy with excitement that Trump might get indicted. Lots of happiness among ordinary people.
Geminid
@Dan B: You may get your wish. These indictments are likely for the classified documents. There could well be indictments over the Insurrection, in a DC court.
PAM Dirac
@Dan B: MIght have to buy a case. Never know how many indictments Jack has lined up. And there’s Georgia. Is it Prosecco for the state indictments, Champagne for the first Federal and a domestic Méthode champenoise for the next couple of Federal? Where is Miss Manners when you need her?
Baud
@Brachiator:
Haha. That’s wonderful.
TS
@Baud:
You are too kind
@JPL:
Not having read past the first sentence, I have no idea – but he may be saving that for his next article.
Jeffro
Remember it’s not “champagne”…it’s “sparkling schadenfreude”!
and oh, oh how sparkling it is…
LOLOL
S Cerevisiae
Happy Indictment Day! May there be months of them! Celebrating with a Lagunitas IPA 🍺
NotMax
@TS
“A man you want to have a glass of
beertepid water with.”//
eversor
@PAM Dirac:
Wasn’t his waving the classified documents around while on the phone done in Jersey? They might want in.
PAM Dirac
@Jeffro:
There you go. It isn’t the specific wine, it’s the spirit of schadenfreude that is important. Share the spirit!
bbleh
@Geminid: I certainly expect more shoes to drop. Perhaps even more on the documents, quite apart from 1/6.
Ruckus
@Scout211:
No matter how you spell it they are 2 shits in a bowl. (Much nastier than 2 pees in a pod.)
Whatever his name is and SFB both seem to lie better than they breathe. And possibly more often.
But they are different symptoms of the same disease, CSO – conservative shit overload. They are trying so hard to be the people they think they are, that they never manage to do anything correctly. And of course the people they think they are only exist in their completely fucked up mis-imaginations.
Ruckus
@hilts:
Baud answered you correctly, that ShitForBrains is always full of shit.
But that also describes a lot of the high end of the rethuglican party. They want to turn the country back 300 yrs and to take their money with them. But we know that ship sailed around 300 yrs ago and then sank about 100 yrs later. IOW it hasn’t been the world they wanted for a very long time and they are just too fucking stupid to figure that out and get with the program which is a hell of a lot better, even for them.
Ruckus
@hilts:
How do we know whether or not Trump is full of shit?
Also.
Are his lips moving? Yes – he’s lying. No – he’s thinking of lying.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Manyakitty: I don’t think he exists. So many lies, so little proof, he’s a cartoon.
Uncle Cosmo
@Wyatt Salmanca: More like, one hopes,
Miss Bianca
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight…it’s OK for *Republicans* to call for “defunding the police”? Is that right? Just checking.