Republican Claims of Biden Bribery Are a ‘Fiasco’ of ‘Unsubstantiated Allegations,’ Congressman Says
Charges of wrongdoing are currently just "rampant speculation," Schiff adds
The House Republicans' new claims of an "alleged criminal scheme" involving President Biden have unleashed a frenzy of headlines in conservative media and setting off impeachment speculation even before any evidence has been produced is nothing more than an “unsubstantiated” “fiasco,” according to a prominent Democratic congressman who managed Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Wednesday subpoenaed the FBI for a June 2020 form called an FD-1023, which is used to memorialize interviews with sources and often includes unverified information.
According to an alleged whistleblower, the FD-1023 “describes an alleged criminal scheme involving” Biden and a “foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” while he was vice president.
The White House has denied any wrongdoing on the part of the president.
While the allegations have whipped up frenzy on the political right, there's been no presentation of information or substantiation, according to Rep Adam Schiff (D-Calif), who acted as lead prosecutor in the role of manager in the Senate trial for the first impeachment of Donald Trump in early 2020.
“You know, honestly, I don’t think you can put much stock in anything that Mr. Comer has to say because his track record is very poor,” Schiff said. “When they put these so-called whistleblowers before Congress, none of that has borne out, none of it has represented what they said it would. It’s been a fiasco.
“And so I don’t know whether this is just pure speculation that they believe there’s a document of an interview. Well, there are lots of interviews. It doesn’t necessarily mean there is any wrongdoing,” he added, in an on-camera appearance on CNN. “So, I wouldn’t give much stock to this. But I’m not surprised they push out these unsubstantiated allegations. They’ve been doing it for some time.”
Republicans have been threatening to impeach Biden — baselessly — since his earliest time as president.
“At this point, it’s just the most rampant speculation,” Schiff said of the new allegations against the president. “We don’t even know if there is such a document or what the document pertains to. All we have is someone’s representation, and it doesn’t even sound like he knows what it pertains to. So, I don’t want to speculate about it.”
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