IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler’s testimony Wednesday earlier than the Home Oversight Committee concerning the political interference within the Biden investigation proved so unimpeachable that Democrats resorted to a shotgun assault on the whole lot besides the details. Listed below are the highest six themes the left hammered through the listening to.
1. Orange Man — and His Household And Associates — Unhealthy
Wednesday’s listening to started promptly at 1:00 with opening statements by Republican Chair James Comer and Democrat Rating Member Jamie Raskin. From the get-go Raskin set one theme Democrats would proceed to hawk over the course of the subsequent six hours: Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible, no good, very dangerous man.
Trump was impeached and is underneath indictment. His daughter was underneath investigation, and her husband bought out to the Saudis. Trump’s cronies — Manafort, Stone, Flynn, and Cohen — dedicated crimes, and Trump pardoned them. On and on they went, pointing to Trump to show the main target from the whistleblowers’ testimony: that the proof signifies Hunter Biden dedicated felonies and now-President Joe Biden might have been complicit within the illegality. Democrats likewise used this misdirection to keep away from confronting the overwhelming proof that the DOJ and FBI interfered within the investigation and guarded the Biden household.
2. How Dare Republicans Say ‘Two-Tier Justice System’
A second prevalent tactic on show throughout Wednesday’s listening to was Democrats feigning outrage over Republicans’ complaints of a “two-tier justice system.”
In keeping with Democrats on the committee, that phrase belongs to the civil rights motion and will solely be invoked to sentence systemic racism. Some representatives ran so arduous with this theme that they spent their allotted time highlighting decades-old hate crimes moderately than asking the IRS whistleblowers questions regarding their testimony.
One consultant even quizzed Shapley on his data of the racial disparity seen within the prosecution of tax instances. Shapley stated he was unaware of the statistic. The Democrat lawmaker then cited the relative percentages for the IRS agent, whereas remaining oblivious to the truth that Shapley was complaining of favoritism bestowed on the white, privileged Hunter Biden.
3. By no means Thoughts the Whistleblowers, Let’s Discuss About Rudy and the Arms Vendor
Democrats additionally sought to distract from the whistleblowers’ testimony by framing the proof detailed by the 2 skilled and well-credentialed IRS brokers as flowing from Rudy Giuliani. However as Ziegler testified, he launched the investigation into Hunter Biden after proof implicating him was found pursuant to a separate legal investigation. Not one of the proof Ziegler and Shapley developed got here from Giuliani.
Nor did the allegations that Joe and Hunter Biden every obtained $5 million in bribes from Burisma, as reported by an FBI confidential human supply and summarized within the FD-1023, come from Giuliani. The IRS brokers by no means noticed the FD-1023 in any occasion.
Home Democrats likewise tried to reduce the whistleblowers’ testimony by pretending that, beside Giuliani, the one proof of misconduct got here from a witness charged with being an arms vendor, specifically Gal Luft. Whether or not Luft has credible proof of Biden-family corruption, nonetheless, has nothing to do with Ziegler and Shapley’s claims.
4. Merely a Misunderstanding
Of their much less hysterical moments, the Democrats supplied a gentler spin, framing the Home’s listening to as a lot ado a couple of misunderstanding. It additionally got here all the way down to the whistleblowers not greedy the distinction between a particular counsel and a particular lawyer, a number of Biden apologists recommended.
However as Shapley made clear, he had documented U.S. Lawyer David Weiss’s assertion — that the DOJ had denied Weiss particular counsel authority — quickly after Weiss made that illustration, and thus whereas Shapley’s reminiscence was clear. In any occasion, in line with Shapley, Weiss had additionally stated throughout that assembly on Oct. 7, 2022, that he was not the ultimate resolution maker on whether or not to convey expenses towards Hunter Biden. That truth makes the excellence between a particular counsel and a particular lawyer irrelevant.
Raskin additionally recommended Shapley was confused about Weiss’s authority, claiming the Delaware U.S. Lawyer made clear in his letters to Congress he had final authority to cost Hunter Biden.
Each whistleblowers decimated that line of argument by highlighting what Weiss truly stated, which was that he lacked charging authority outdoors of Delaware. In truth, if something, Raskin harm his trigger by highlighting the contradictions between Weiss and Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland’s statements, establishing the need for each DOJ bigwigs to testify earlier than Congress to resolve the inconsistencies.
5. Only a Distinction of Opinion
A associated theme Democrats peddled throughout Wednesday’s listening to centered on prosecutorial discretion. The left facet of the aisle painted the whistleblowers’ testimony as merely knowledgeable disagreement between the IRS brokers and Weiss.
However there was no disagreement in opinion, Shapley and Ziegler pressured: Each the IRS and Weiss agreed that Hunter Biden ought to be charged with a number of felony counts. Weiss, nonetheless, lacked the power to convey expenses in D.C., and it was the Biden-appointed U.S. lawyer there, in addition to in California, that saved the Delaware U.S. lawyer from submitting legal felony expenses towards the president’s son.
Additional, that the D.C. and California U.S. attorneys thwarted efforts to convey felony expenses towards Hunter Biden proved particularly wealthy given the Democrats continued references all through the listening to to Weiss being Trump’s “hand-picked U.S. lawyer.” Past the apparent level that being a Trump appointee establishes nothing, underneath the Democrats’ normal, the involvement of the Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys removes this case from the “distinction of opinion” situation.
6. There’s No Proof, I Inform You, No Proof
A sixth narrative Democrats pushed through the Oversight listening to was that there’s no proof of misconduct or favoritism. However to paraphrase Shapley’s line, simply repeating the identical lie a number of instances doesn’t make it true. And to say there’s no proof of misconduct or favoritism is a whopper of a lie.
The proof of misconduct by the Bidens exists within the type of texts, emails, chat messages, financial institution information, suspicious exercise studies, the FD-1023 report, and statements made by former enterprise companions reminiscent of Tony Bobulinski. The general public file can also be replete with proof of DOJ and FBI favoritism, together with the in depth testimony of those two whistleblowers, elements of which a 3rd whistleblower has already corroborated.
The Democrats might not just like the proof or need to speak about it, however to say none exists is about as plausible because the Secret Service’s declare that they can’t decide whose cocaine was recovered within the White Home.
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior authorized correspondent. She can also be a contributor to Nationwide Evaluation On-line, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been revealed within the Wall Road Journal and USA At this time.
Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Regulation College, the place she earned the Hoynes Prize—the legislation college’s highest honor. She later served for practically 25 years as a everlasting legislation clerk for a federal appellate decide on the Seventh Circuit Courtroom of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time college college member and now teaches as an adjunct occasionally.
As a stay-at-home homeschooling mother of a younger son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland continuously writes on cultural points associated to parenting and special-needs kids. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed listed here are these of Cleveland in her non-public capability.
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