Joe Biden May Have a ‘Criminal Scheme’ To Worry About

Congressional Republicans are claiming something explosive: They have a claim of a “criminal scheme” involving President Joe Biden receiving money in exchange for policy decisions when he was vice president. But little is known about the veracity of the claims. 

Did Joe Biden Commit a Crime? 

In the opening months of the current Congress, Republicans in the House, especially on the House Oversight Committee, have been issuing subpoenas and holding hearings, alleging various forms of wrongdoing by the Biden Administration, and more prominently, by his son Hunter and other family members. 

But now, Congressional Republicans are alleging something much more serious: That there exists a whistleblower claim stating that President Joe Biden when he was vice president, had committed a criminal act. 

Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who chairs the House Oversight Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, are claiming that per the whistleblower claim, the FBI possesses a document that “describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions. It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.”

If Joe Biden did engage in a  “criminal scheme” that entailed taking bribes from a foreign national, that would likely amount to a presidency-ending scandal. But we’re a long, long way away from that having been established. 

It’s not clear who the whistleblower is, who the foreign national is, or what country that person comes from if that aspect of the story is true. Comer, further, has subpoenaed the FBI for “all FD-1023 forms, including within any open, closed, or restricted access case files, created or modified in June 2020, containing the term ‘Biden,’ including all accompanying attachments and documents to those FD-1023 forms.”

Fox News’ Jesse Watters, quoting Grassley, described the whistleblower as “highly credible,” although because no one knows who the whistleblower is, it’s not clear how that could be determined. 

Democrats Counter Attack

Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing back on the report. 

“Committee Republicans are recycling unsubstantiated claims floated by Senate Republicans by issuing a subpoena to the FBI to require the release of a June 2020 tip from an unknown informant,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement to Politico. “During this same time period, Rudy Giuliani and Russian agents, sanctioned by Trump’s Treasury Department, were peddling disinformation aimed at interfering in the 2020 presidential election.”

Raskin also criticized Comer’s stated “commitment to ‘dismantle’ the FBI.” 

If Raskin is right, it would appear to mean that an informant has alleged that this bribery agreement took place, but that does not necessarily mean that the informant is right, or that there’s any further evidence of such a thing. 

The White House responded as well. 

“For going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically-motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests,” spokesman Ian Sams told Politico. “That’s because they prefer floating anonymous innuendo, amplified by the megaphone of their allies in rightwing media, to get attention.”

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Expertise and Experience

 Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.