Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He really is that stupid.

This really is a full service blog.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / Late Night Interlude Open Thread: Smirnov Lied. So Did, and Will, Jim Comer

Late Night Interlude Open Thread: Smirnov Lied. So Did, and Will, Jim Comer

by | 51 Comments

This post is in: ,

This story has been (temporarily) overwhelmed by the Great Budget Bullsh*t Kabuki, but I’m sure Jim ‘Second Time As Farce’ Comer is keeping his oversight gavel warm. So, getting it on the record: The whole ‘Burisma paid off Hunter and probably Joe Biden’ story was based on lies from an actual, breathing, self-identified Russian asset. And Comer’s Crew was either too dumb to pick that up, or too eager to impeach President Biden not to leap at the lies like a pig at a truffle…

A former FBI informant pleaded guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Alexander Smirnov entered his plea to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income…

Smirnov will get credit for the time he has served since his February arrest on charges that he told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015.

Smirnov had been an informant for more than a decade when he made the explosive allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, after “expressing bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, prosecutors said.

But Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017, according to court documents. An FBI field office investigated the allegations and recommended the case be closed in August 2020, according to charging documents.

No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes as president or in his previous office as vice president.

While Smirnov’s identity wasn’t publicly known before the indictment, his claims played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. Before Smirnov’s arrest, Republicans had demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the unverified allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if they were true…

Smirnov claimed to have contacts with Russian intelligence-affiliated officials, and told authorities after his arrest this year that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden…

Goddess bless the Democrats pushing back on Comer’s lies…

Remember the "Biden bribe" story? The guy who invented it just admitted to making it up.
Remember the "FBI did Jan. 6" thing? According to a new inspector general report, they didn't.
I'm sure Fox News et al will be suitably chastened.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202…

[image or embed]

— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) December 12, 2024 at 3:27 PM

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  2. 2.

    different-church-lady

    “In order to right this injustice, Biden must pardon Trump” — [let’s start a pool]

  3. 3.

    different-church-lady

    CNN: *plays clip of Comer saying an FBI informant who has now pleaded guilty to lying is “a very crucial piece of our investigation” of Hunter Biden*

    PAMELA BROWN: Do you regret playing this FBI informant up?

    COMER: I never said he was a crucial part of the investigation

    DUMB-FUCK ELECTORATE: “Good enough for me!”

  4. 4.

    Melancholy Jaques

    If things like this cost the Republicans politically or even if it made the political media less likely to chase after their next shiny object, it might deter them. And no, I do not have a solution to the problem. I am exhausted from trying to get through to normies

    ETA – Like what different church lady said

  5. 5.

    Shalimar

    Fuck God.  Lightning never strikes all the lying hypocrites like it should.  Comer and his brother are far more corrupt than anyone in the Biden family.

  8. 8.

    KatKapCC

    I’m sure Jim ‘Second Time As Farce’ Comer is keeping his oversight gavel warm.

    I do not want to know how.

  15. 15.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Given all the pardon talk in the last few weeks, I was reminded of when I was disappointed to learn that Carter pardoned Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame) on the last day of his term in office. Yarrow was convicted of molesting a 14 year old girl:

    In 1970, Yarrow was convicted and served three months in prison for taking “improper liberties” with 14-year-old Barbara Winter, who went with her 17-year-old sister to Yarrow’s hotel room in Washington, DC seeking an autograph. Winter stated that Yarrow answered the door naked and made her masturbate him until he ejaculated. Yarrow served three months of a 1–3 year prison sentence.

    Given Yarrow was a famous male musician and sexual assault against women was taken even less seriously back then, the evidence against him must have been damning to get a conviction.

    In light of this, what does it say about Carter to grant such a man a pardon just because he was a good fundraiser for Democratic causes? I recall reading George McGovern was among those lobbying for Yarrow. What does that say about him?

  16. 16.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It says terrible things about men and patriarchy, Goku.  Terrible things.  And things haven’t gotten much better (if at all): we can see #MeToo boils down to “every now and then, a particularly egregious offender -might- get punished a little.  A.  Little.”  Sigh.

    I remember I was in grad school when somebody mentioned that Peter of PP&M was a child molester.  Sigh.  Puff the Magic Dragon was never the same again.

  17. 17.

    Splitting Image

    No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes as president or in his previous office as vice president.

    It’s good that the news media got the word out about that (checks notes) five weeks after the election. If they had waited any longer, there might have been some serious repercussions to their keeping quiet.

  18. 18.

    RevRick

    “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor“ (8th or 9th Commandment)

    What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him(sic), slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

    Martin Luther’s Small Catechism 

  22. 22.

    Peale

    I can’t remember if it was Anne Laurie or Betty who was decompressing from politics this summer with Moo Deng. But I came across this lovely Moo Deng Crèche and thought, well, someone somewhere would covet if if they knew it existed.

  23. 23.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Chetan Murthy:

    You’re right about that. Although, I was surprised to read that Yarrow’s conviction started to be a liability in the early 2000s for Democratic campaigns, a lot earlier than I thought it would’ve been

  24. 24.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @RevRick:

    Sadly, for some of these people, if they actually are religious, they rationalize that lying is okay if it’s for Jesus

  25. 25.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I had a depressing conversation with a guy a few days ago.  He was complaining about how men were oppressed and such, how a man’s career could be destroyed by allegations of sexual misconduct.  And I had to remind him that every generation of women living, from the oldest to  the youngest, has had women stand up and bear witness that every woman they know either has been, or knows women who, have been sexually assaulted or worse.  In the moment, he was able to take this on without belligerently resisting, but I’m quite sure that he’ll forget it and be back to his original position in days if not hours.

    It’s appalling, and never seems to get better.

  28. 28.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay: That trial is (so to speak) the mid-ground of every conversation about violence against women in our times.  But the background ….. well, I remember when Keira Knightley said every woman she knows had been harassed ( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/08/keira-knightley-says-every-woman-she-knows-has-been-harassed ).  And then Billie Eilish said that abuse of her age group is everywhere ( https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/may/02/billie-eilish-says-all-her-age-group-have-suffered-sexual-misbehaviour ).  And then there was a woman from the generation one older than Ms. Knightley’s who said basically the same thing as she did, about sexual assault in her generation.

    We look at that Pelicot et al trial, and it’s horrific, but it’s only the middle-ground of the scene on stage: the background is a deep and abiding history of violence that we all knew was there when we were young, but somehow we didn’t do anything about it, and now the generation after us  …. doing exactly the same.

  30. 30.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think it says that they were men of their time, and that those times were pretty awful.  A long time ago, I remember this piece at LG&M ( https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/04/deadwoods-historical-accuracy ) about how little girls in 1890s Iowa could be kidnapped off the street, raped, pressed into prostitution, and they (and their families) could get no redress from the courts, b/c that was the way it was.  Those were the times.

    Yes, it doesn’t say that Carter/McGovern were worse than most decent men of their time.  But decent men of that time weren’t very decent.  Nor are decent men today very decent.  We still let awful things happen in our midst, and nothing gets done about it.

  34. 34.

    Chetan Murthy

    @KatKapCC: That’s right.  And that’s what this young friend of mine failed to understand: he sees the corporate policy bullshit (that is to say “at company X, we do not tolerate any sexual harrassment, ,etc, etc, harrumph and etc”), and from it concludes that there is a veritable reign of terror over men’s lives, when it’s quite the opposite: the corporate policy bullshit covers over a reign of terror against women’s lives.

  35. 35.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    In addition to what Chetan Murthy said, I don’t think “nobody is perfect” is an adequate defense imo. The fact that he, a celebrity, was convicted in 1970 of sexual assault of a minor says to me that the evidence must’ve been damning.

    I think it was shameful for Carter to pardon a convicted child molester and shameful for McGovern to lobby for that pardon. He knew it was a bad look which is why he scheduled the pardon the way he did, on his last day in office. Apparently, according to the WaPo article linked below, the pardon request was submitted a mere five weeks before the end of Carter’s term:

    Every year, hundreds of Americans apply for presidential pardons, which are normally handled by the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department.

    John R. Stanish, who served as the Pardon Attorney for most of Carter’s presidency, said most pardon applications took the better part of a year, or longer, to vet.

    The Post reported that Yarrow filed the petition on Dec. 10, 1980 — meaning there would have been about five weeks between the time he filed the application and when the pardon was granted.

    Stanish, who’d already left the Justice Department by then, said that surprised him. “That is about the only case that I have heard of that might have skipped the proper channels,” he said.

    Patrick Apodaca, the deputy White House counsel who was then responsible for pardon applications, said that while he doesn’t specifically recall handling Yarrow’s pardon, there were a number of applications that were “accelerated” at the end of Carter’s term.

    “Generally,” he said, it was “‘Let’s clean the decks’” before Reagan came to White House.

    I would think that even in 1981, child molestation/rape was considered a bad thing that should not be pardoned. There’s a WaPo article from a few years back that documents other allegations against Yarrow

    A famed folk singer won a presidential pardon after molesting a child. Did he prey on others?

    I think McGovern, who’s niece Yarrow married in 1968 (he was 31 and she was 20), and Carter didn’t care about Barbara Winters and what she went through at the hands of Yarrow. I don’t think that’s a mere mistake. They should’ve known better

  36. 36.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think that’s a mere mistake. They should’ve known better

    Goku, yes, they should have.  But they were no different than most men of their age, than even most -decent- men of their age.  I’m excusing them: it was an indecent age.  But it’s an indecent age today, too.

  37. 37.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Chetan Murthy:

    @KatKapCC:

    Also, it’s really weird to be that concerned over false allegations. Do these guys want to walk around with body cams 24/7? Generally, as long as you don’t say or do anything creepy, and keep things professional, you have nothing to worry about.

  38. 38.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They’re not concerned  over -false- allegations.  They’re concerned over the -true- ones.  And people like my friend (who would never commit such crimes) is concerned out of ally-ship with other men.  “Brotherhood” and all.  Sigh.

  40. 40.

    JCJ

    @Peale: Moo Deng is getting bigger!  I saw her last week.  Still pretty cute.  Unfortunately she was sleeping or hanging out in the water.  Still big crowds, and we were there on a regular work day.  I bought a plushie of Moo Deng as well as a silly soccer jersey for “Moo Deng FC”

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @JCJ:  You got to see Moo Deng in real life.  What fun.

    I await our pandas being available to admire at DC’s National Zoo.  End of January.  Something good to look forward to that month!

  44. 44.

    Princess

    I don’t care; I’m still not voting for Hunter for president.

    Also, I find Moo Deng completely gross. There, I’ve said it, safely, in a dead thread.

  48. 48.

    wenchacha

    @RevRick: But isn’t there the exception if the liar is converting people to Christianity, or is able to accumulate power (for the glory to God?)

    There’s gotta be a verse.

  49. 49.

    Bill Arnold

    @wenchacha:
    There are always verses. The general consensus is that lying is sinful. A couple of web pages to skim:
    Christian views on lying (wikipedia)

    Lying is strongly discouraged and forbidden by most interpretations of Christianity. Arguments for this are based on various biblical passages, especially “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”, one of the Ten Commandments. Christian theologians disagree as to the exact definition of “lie” and whether it is ever acceptable.

    RationalWiki is (generally) atheist, but they deliver some interesting references:
    Pious fraud (RationalWiki)
    (See the Christianisty section)

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s quite likely that the word shame is waste on them. The entire concept of shame requires that you have a concept of right and  wrong (or the left – in their minds). They want what they think the world should look like, which is certain people are in charge, the rich have more rights than any one else (money can buy love…. or at least bullshit) and there is a segment of humanity that should be in complete charge because they believe that they are always right. (It’s why we call them the right) Conservatism is about having a ruling class and everyone else. And the ruling class is always right! Except when they are wrong. Which these days seems to be ALWAYS. Conservatives seem to be stuck in reverse, always wanting to go backwards in time, concepts, reality.

  51. 51.

    Chris T.

    @KatKapCC:

    Most men’s careers are not anything even close to destroyed by allegations, whether true or false.

    Indeed. Q: What does one call a rapist in the US? A: “President-elect”, “Supreme Court Justice”, and so on.

Comments are closed.