Thread by @emptywheel

Just tuned into the @jim_jordan witch hunt session.

He's totally misrepresenting the Hunter Biden plea deal. But this will make it far easier for Hunter to escape the charges.

BREAKING: Jim Jordan is very angry that Bill Barr protected Joe Biden.

Also, he's not really sure whether the IRS agents are IRS or FBI.

BREAKING: Jim Jordan repeats the lock-on-door claim, but then so do many journalists, still.

Note, Jimmy just released the Steve D transcript today, so people didn't have a time to debunk it--such as how Steve D was protecting insurrectionists.

BREAKING: Jim Jordan says the IRS victims are the bipartisan political groups who were pushing their NGO status, but not Jim Comey, Andy McCabe, or ... Hunter Biden.

Meanwhile I'm on page 20 of D'Antuono's transcript, and found the first claim that conflicts with the evidence in Trump investigation. According to indictment, Trump did pack up himself.

documentcloud.org/documents/2398…

Nadler: I invite Americans to see through the sham.

Welp, Jerry, first you gotta get the media to see thru the sham.

D'Antuono says he has no reason not to be honest. But he just admitted he wanted a promotion and realized he wasn't going to get one. And he just said something that conflicts with the evidence.

D'Antuno's very telling comment about why he didn't want to get involved in investigaton the venue of which he admits is in DC.

Fucking coward.

Garland: Singling out individual public servants just for doing their job is dangerous, especially at a time of increasing threats.

[Reminds that DOJ started to protect black citizens from white supremacists, which he often says.]

Mike Johnson says it is "just a fact" that DOJ slow-walked Hunter Biden investigation.

Note, three years of that slow walked investigation happened under Trump's AGs.

Garland reiterates that investigations the same. At this point that's indefensible wrt Hunter, who was targeted under Barr.

Dan Bishop LITERALLY says that Merrick Garland's failure to interfere is the problem now.

Also lying about what happened with the 2014 and 2015 SOLs: David Weiss decided not to charge.

He's also not crediting that only reason they had been held was bc Hunter's lawyers agreed.

Zoe Lofgren asks whether there's precedent for congress to interfere in prosecution.

Garland balks at word "interfere" but notes Iran-Contra led to North getting off.

I wonder if he realizes the same may happen with Hunter Biden.

Lofgren: The proposal is to defund the police, defund the FBI. That doesn't have an impact on the statute of limitations [for cases that you're pursuing]. Would they be suspended or would the criminals get off scot free.

LOL: Lofgren suggests that Hunter Biden will get off on tax charges if Republicans shut down govt.

Jordan tells two lies: 1) That Shokin was applying pressure on Burisma. 2) That the Shokin firing was related to the FD-1023.

Both outright lies.

BREAKING: Jim Jordan notes that Hunter Biden's lawyers had agreed to toll SOLs, which utterly destroys his conspiracy theory.

BREAKING: Jim Jordan accuses Bill Barr of slow-walking the investigation that (he claims) would have implicted Joe Biden.

BREAKING: Jim Jordan can't tell the difference between Lindsey Graham and Joe Biden.

This is something Dems should introduce to this hearing: the hand-written notes that Gary Shapley withheld for months. They show that WEISS EXPLAINED why he wasn't charging Burisma.

It's not that they lapsed. It's that he decided not to charge.

politico.com/f/?id=0000018a…

But even Shapley's email DID acknowledge that the prosecutorial decision had been made.

documentcloud.org/documents/2386…

LOLOLOL. Holy shit. Matt Gaetz asks why the Attorney General hasn't told Joe Biden to stop loving his son.

Just shameful stuff.

Now Matt Gaetz complains that Matt Olsen replaced the China initiative was replaced with something more effective.

Now Matt Gaetz is blaming Merrick Garland for the deployment of informants on January 6.

Note, it's a mistake for Democrats not to give Garland a chance to answer abt the China initiative. It's clear that's going to be one of the claims behind impeachment.

The China initiative targeted Americans who were often clueless not those recruiting them. It backfired.

In fact, it is totally inconsistent for someone who wants to end 702 to politicize the closure of the China Initiative -- because both target Chinese Americans disproportionately.

Tom McClintock repeats the claim that the IRS targeting targeted only right wingers.

Tom McClintock now claims it's obstruction that IRS officials required Gary Shapley to turn over in advance of discovery -- he was the guy who would have interviewed Hunter himself.

He's basically saying basic discovery is obstruction.

Here's D'Antuono debunking the claim that there was ANY show of force in the MAL search.

Note, this process of talking to the Secret Service in advance? Is a CORE complaint about the Hunter Biden interview in 2020.

D'Antuono makes it clear DOJ was pushing to do the search before docs could be taken to MAL. FBI dictated the day. Docs were taken to MAL.

Basically, the FBI ADIC helped Trump steal docs that still haven't been located.

I think Darrell Issa just referred to Maryellen Noreika as male.

Dude behind Issa seems to be flirting with ... someone.

Schiff describes Jordan making the Committee a criminal defense firm for the president, establishing a principle that law applies to ALMOST everyone, but not the leader of the chairman's political party.

Massie claims that Garland is in contempt of Congress bc he won't tell him about the pipe bomber investigation (which is totally unrelated to a Navarro blowing off a subpoena).

Massie raises Iran-Contra, which Garland had earlier said let someone off free.

BREAKING: Tom Massie says more Jan6ers should be charged with felonies!!

This is what Jordan was doing when Eric Swalwell was reminding that Jim Jordan blew off a subpoena.

Swalwell: They're upset that Donald Trump's appointed attorneys aren't as corrupt as Trump deserves.

Swalwell thanks Garland for doing what Jordan refused to do: testify before Congress.

Fitzgerald asks if Lesley Wolf (who has been a target of threats) is still employed by DOJ.

Garland notes that people are getting targeted.

Fitzgerald doubles down.

Russell Fry points to Shapley's notes and email as if they support him. They don't. His notes include a detail that he claimed not to know in his first deposition.

emptywheel.net/2023/09/13/gar…

And Shapley REWROTE what Weiss said in the meeting, from assurance he'd charge CA to an inability to do so.

emptywheel.net/2023/09/14/gar…

BREAKING: Jim Jordan admits he's too stupid to understand really basic comments.

BREAKING: Ben Cline joins in confessing he's too stupid to even read basic DOJ guidelines, including the 515 authority we've been talking about for months and months.

Why are GOPers so stupid?

Garland says that the extraordinary circumstances mentioned in the SCO appointment memo have nothing to do with Shapley (whose name both he and Cline mispronounced).

BREAKING: Andy Biggs is lecturing other people about what is logically fallacious.

BREAKING: Tom Tiffany wants Merrick Garland to start arresting people who expose nudity to children.

Watchout, Marge, Tiffany is going to get you arrested for posting Hunter Biden dick pics.

Ken Buck notes that Garland never had the opportunity to swap out David Weiss.

Cori Bush has a long list of complaints from the left, including funding Federal Public Defenders, BOP problems, the death penalty.