Liberal news outlets like CNN are tripping over themselves trying to claim that FBI agent testimony “contradicts” what the whistleblowers testified to Congress. The fact is the exact opposite. What the agents really say is “they don’t remember.” That’s a legally safe answer to any tricky question because you can’t get charged with perjury for it later. It also doesn’t sound as nasty as “I refuse to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me.” If these agents came out and said something like “I know for a certainty that Weiss did not say what the whistleblowers said he did,” then someone comes up with an audio recording later, they could be in prison for a long, long time. Selective amnesia is a whole lot safer.
FBI agents can’t remember
When FBI agents took the stand in front of House investigators, they were quick to use the “Peter Gabriel” defense. “I don’t remember, I don’t recall. I got no memory of anything at all. I got no memory of anything – anything at all.” They sat there cowering on the witness stand begging House lawmakers “stop staring at me like a bird of prey. I’m all mixed up, I got nothing to say.”
CNN thinks that “casts doubt on key claims from an IRS whistleblower who alleges there was political interference in the federal criminal investigation of Hunter Biden’s taxes.” They can think it but the only thing it casts doubt on is the integrity of the Federal Bureau of Instigation.
The transcripts which CNN got their hands on speak for themselves. “Several FBI and IRS officials brought in for closed-door testimony by House Republicans in recent days said they don’t remember U.S. Attorney David Weiss saying that he lacked the authority to decide whether to bring charges.” They were all on Ambien that day. They don’t remember that he didn’t say that. Nobody can recall that “Weiss said he had been denied a request for special counsel status,” either.
Ah so we've reached the "just lie about stuff" phase.
"Thomas Sobocinski, an F.B.I. agent, told House investigators that the prosecutor overseeing the investigation into the president’s son never said he did not have full authority to pursue charges." https://t.co/H7aBZIUDx5 https://t.co/XJaNjZbRQi
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) September 13, 2023
None of the forgetful witnesses took notes. Whistleblower Gary Shapely did take notes. His notes match what he testified to. “I am alleging, with evidence, that DOJ provided preferential treatment, slow-walked the investigation, did nothing to avoid obvious conflicts of interest in this investigation,” Shapley told lawmakers.
Shapley and his fellow investigator on the case, Joseph Zielger, alerted Congress that “the Justice Department’s investigation into Biden’s taxes was tainted by political influence and that Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland tried to protect Hunter Biden in the investigation.”
The FBI is in deep trouble and the Deep State can’t keep them all out of it this time. Someone is going under the bus. The scramble now is to control the damage. “I do not remember – I don’t – he didn’t say that. In my recollection, if he would have said that, I would have remembered it,” Thomas Sobocinski, “the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office, told the committee.”
Impeachment case now open
One of the things that really has Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray terrified is the opening of an impeachment hearing for Joe Biden. That means Congress can use the investigation, or lack thereof, as evidence against Joe. It also means that Garland can’t block subpoenas for the paperwork actually generated by the FBI and IRS during the investigation by U.S. Attorney David Weiss into Hunter Biden’s alleged crimes from the time it was opened until now.
After five years of trying to cover up the investigation there was a mad scramble to close the file. That blew up in court. “I do not recall that ever being said,” said Darrell Waldon, “who was previously Shapley’s boss as the IRS special agent in charge of the Washington, DC, field office overseeing criminal investigations.”
The big issues revolve around a meeting “between prosecutors and case agents working on the Hunter Biden investigation” held in October of 2022. Shapely and his handwritten notes, taken during the meeting, allege “that during that meeting, Weiss, the then-US attorney for Delaware, told participants that he was ‘not the deciding person‘ on whether Hunter Biden was charged.”
Thomas Sobocinski, who manages the FBI team involved in the investigation [into Hunter Biden], agreed with the IRS whistleblowers that Weiss had moved slowly in making a charging decision. https://t.co/NFfTgpPa7j
— Symone D. Sanders Townsend (@SymoneDSanders) September 13, 2023
That would seem to mean he had to ask other U.S. Attorney’s for a favor. More likely it means that Merrick Garland already told him there wouldn’t be any charges so don’t even think about deciding on any. The FBI was all set to back them up. “I don’t remember him saying that,” said Ryeshia Holley, “an assistant special agent in charge with the FBI, who added she thought Shapley may have been confused or misunderstood what transpired at the meeting.”
House Republicans believe what Shapley and Ziegler are telling them. Especially since the notes back it up. Conservative lawmakers “have taken that to mean Weiss was not in charge of his own investigation, and was deferring to a higher authority.” Merrick Garland, who thinks he really runs this country. Besides Shapley, Ziegler and Weiss, there were four others in the meeting.
Three of them don’t remember much other than there was a meeting. The fourth, probably another FBI agent, hasn’t yet testified. The ones with amnesia grudgingly admit that “Weiss was having trouble finding a venue to bring charges against the president’s son, as U.S. attorneys from other states rejected partnering on the case. They also expressed frustration with the pace of the probe, which at that point had been ongoing for roughly four years.” CNN made sure to bury that line.
