Rep. Matt Gaetz has denounced the indictment of former President Donald Trump over the “boxes hoax” involving mishandling classified information, saying it is intended to draw public attention away from the “Biden Crime Family.”
“The phony Boxes Hoax indictment is an attempt to distract the American public from the millions of dollars in bribes that the Biden Crime Family received from foreign nationals,” Gaetz tweeted on Thursday night.
“This scheme won’t succeed. President Donald Trump will be back in the White House and Joe Biden will be Hunter’s cellmate.”
In the news: Rep. Matt Gaetz Says McCarthy Must Act Quickly To Repair Rift With Conservative Republicans
The Fort Walton Beach Republican’s comments came as the House Judiciary Committee was releasing a letter in which the top FBI investigator over Trump’s case was doubtful about its validity.
The Washington Times reported on Friday that Steven D’Antuono, the former assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, told lawmakers on Wednesday that he had harbored “strong reservations about the [Mar-a-Lago] operation and the investigation.” D’Antuono reported that there were “several deviations from the Justice Department’s usual protocol” when it came to the raid on Trump’s home in the classified documents search.
D’Antuono shared that he was concerned the FBI would be “left holding the bag again” in its pursuit of the former president.
As for those “deviations” from usual practices, D’Antuono, a 20-year veteran, noted that the Washington Field Office led the search rather than the Miami Field Office, which normally would have jurisdiction. D’Antuono told lawmakers he had “absolutely no idea” why the Miami Field Office was not spearheading the case, the Times reported.
D’Antuono also told lawmakers that the Justice Department declined to assign one of the U.S. Attorney’s Offices to investigate, and instead ran it from the FBI’s National Security Division. The agent shared that he “didn’t understand why there wasn’t a US Attorney assigned” and that this decision “raised this concern a lot” among Justice Department officials because this was not ordinary practice.
In the news: Rep. Matt Gaetz Seeks To Censure J6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson
Moreover, D’Antuono told lawmakers that the FBI did not push for the search. According to the Times, “Justice Department officials pressured the FBI to immediately execute the search warrant.” D’Antuono underscored the political nature of the case by noting the push for a search warrant originated with either Attorney Merrick Garland or FBI Director Christopher Wray, and was done over the “opposition from the line agents working the case,” the Times added.
Meanwhile, to Gaetz’s point, while Trump’s indictment has dominated the news over the past couple of days, the Times also reported on Friday that the GOP-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee is preparing to unleash more subpoenas regarding allegations that Biden took a $5 million bribe.
An FBI informant told the agency that Biden accepted the money to help block a Ukrainian prosecutor who was probing corruption at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden.
Subpoenas from GOP lawmakers will target financial documents from Biden family associates, the Times noted.
“It was all bribery, to get [Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin] fired and end the investigation into Burisma,” the informant told the FBI, according to the Times.
The scheme occurred between 2015 and 2016, when Joe Biden was vice president, and which was a time when Burisma sought to buy a U.S.-based energy company and wanted to “make the problems [with Shokin] go away.”
In the news: Rep. Matt Gaetz Seeks To Hold Trump-Hating Former DA In Contempt Of Congress
At a January 2018 event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden publicly bragged about getting Shokin fired, by threatening to withhold U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in; I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden recalled.
It’s unclear exactly when Biden made the threat, but he was in Kyiv in December 2015 to make a speech to the Ukrainian parliament.
Android Users, Click To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Signup for our free newsletter.
We can’t do this without your help; visit our GiveSendGo page and donate any dollar amount; every penny helps.