For weeks now, Republicans in the House and Senate have been demanding that FBI Director Christopher Wray “hand over” documents that allegedly mention a bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden that supposedly took place when he served as vice president in the Obama administration.
But those documents — which Wray has refused to provide but made clear can be viewed at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. — appear to have a genesis in one of the most notorious liars on the planet: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has also served as an attorney to failed former president Donald Trump, according to CNN.
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday offered to let House Oversight Chair James Comer view an internal law enforcement document at FBI headquarters that Republicans believe will shed light on an allegation that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal scheme with a foreign national, the chairman said in a statement.
The document has origins in a tranche of documents that Rudy Giuliani provided to the Justice Department in 2020, people briefed on the matter said.
The allegations of wrongdoing by the then-vice president, many originating from sources in Ukraine, were dubious enough that Attorney General William Barr in early 2020 directed that they be reviewed by a US attorney in Pittsburgh, in part because Barr was concerned that Giuliani’s document tranche could taint the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation overseen by the Delaware US attorney.
More specifically, the documents in question appear to be what are known as 1023s.
A 1023 is standard among federal law enforcement. It lists whatever claims being made by an informant, but it doesn’t provide any evidence that the claims might be true or supported by evidence. It’s a bit like going to the police and telling them you think your neighbor is running a meth lab. Your report isn’t based on facts or evidence, so it’s just an allegation, the sort of thing that anyone can make, especially in order to harm someone they don’t like.
You may recall that during the 2020 election, Giuliani freely admitted that he had traveled to Ukraine on numerous occasions in order to obtain dirt on Joe Biden in an effort to help Trump win reelection. Of course, Giuliani spews so much bullshit that he’s not taken seriously by anyone that isn’t willing to suspend disbelief when he starts talking, so his “proof” was little more than second-hand utterances from questionable characters, many of whom had ties to Russia.
And then today we learned that Republicans aren’t even interested in determining if the accusations in the documents are real, with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) admitting, “Let’s put it this way, there’s accusations in it. But it’s not for me to make a judgment about whether these accusations are accurate or not.”
If Republicans think some document that originated with Rudy Giuliani is the proof they need to impeach President Biden, then they’re even more delusional than Rudy himself.
