The Plot Thickens

By late last week, I was beginning to get the impression that Sen Grassley and Chairman Comer were acting like homicide detectives. In particular, they were asking FBI Director Wray questions to which they already knew the answers, to wit, what was on the FD-1023 form that Wray was so coy about revealing to the Republicans. By Thursday, clearly coordinating with Chairman Comer, Sen Grassley announced that he'd already seen the FD-1023 in question, and it contained a highly credible allegation that Joe Biden had taken a $5 million bribe while he was vice president.

This was likely a major factor that overcame Wray's unwillingness to cooperate, and it illustrates the effectiveness of pretending you don't have information when you're interrogating a suspect. It gives suspects the latitude to lie, and then you can catch them when they do, which throws them off balance. In addition, and probably more important, it leaves the suspect unsure about what else the detective knows that he isn't revealing.

Thus, since late last week, there's been a series of new revelations about what's in the FD-1023. The first, made public at the time Wray agreed to let the full Comer committee review the original FD-1023, was that there were two additional FD-1023s referenced in the original, which would also be provided to the committee. But Sen Grassley made it plain yesterday on the Senate floor that what Wray had given the Comer committee was redacted, that the redactions concealed important information, and this was unacceptable:

Congress still lacks a full and complete picture with respect to what that document really says. That’s why it’s important that the document be made public without unnecessary redactions for the American people to see.

Let me assist for purposes of transparency. The 1023 produced to that House Committee redacted reference that the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them. Seventeen total recordings.

According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses fifteen audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden. According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden. These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.

He concluded, lest there be any doubt,

I want everyone to remember, that I have read the unredacted version.

It was then reported later in the day that the "foreign national" was Burisma Holdings founder Mykola Zlochevsky. So I checked Wikipedia:

Mykola Vladislavovich Zlochevsky (Ukrainian: Микола Владиславович Злочевський; born 14 June 1966) is a Ukrainian oil and natural gas businessman, politician, and an oligarch. Zlochevsky was Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources from July 2010 until April 2012 and was the deputy secretary for Economic and Social Security of the National Security and Defense Council from April 2012 until February 2014 when Euromaidan occurred.He is wanted by Ukrainian authorities for attempting to bribe the prosecutors in order to drop all charges against him.

. . . In 2012, Viktor Pshonka, the Ukrainian prosecutor general, began investigating Burisma Holdings owner, Zlochevsky, over allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption during 2010–2012.

In April 2014 Zlochevsky named Hunter Biden, son of then U. S. Vice President Joe Biden, to Burisma’s board as a director of Burisma, where he was said to have earned over $80,000 monthly.[21] Joe Biden had been made the point man on Ukraine after February 2014, when the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted and fled. Then U. S. President Barack Obama's administration was prepared to work with the new government, a position shared with European governments and institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But they were all concerned about Ukraine's corruption, which had plagued the country ever since it gained independence in the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Joe Biden became a frequent visitor to Ukraine. By his own count, Biden said he went there about a dozen times from early 2014 through early 2016.

. . . On 15 June 2018, after the Solomyansky District Court in Kyiv had annulled the ruling of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) to close a criminal proceeding against him in 2017, Zlochevsky was accused of having illegally issued, while he was Ecology Minister in 2010–2012, oil and gas licenses to the companies that belonged to him.[34]

According to Ukrainian authorities Zlochevsky is suspected of "theft of government funds on an especially large scale". Authorities said the criminal investigation on suspicion of embezzlement is currently on hold because Zlochevsky's whereabouts cannot presently be determined. As of 2019, Zlochevsky is reported to live in Monaco. According to an investigation by Al Jazeera he bought Cypriot citizenship somewhere between 2017 and 2019.

According to RedState, Zlochevsky

is believed to be an asset of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) by the United States intelligence community, according to a national security source speaking to RedState on condition of anonymity.

But nobody quite knows where Zlochevsky is, cough, cough, except he's talking to a credible third party that the FBI respects. And he says he's got recordings that he uses as an insurance policy.

Meanehile, Alan Dershowitz is calling the upcoming trial of Donald Trump

The most important trial in modern history, maybe the most important trial since -- since -- Aaron Burr or the assassins of Abraham Lincoln in terms of constitutionsl lsw. . .

It's hard for me to see how Dershowitx doesn't see the potential problem in a Russian agent actually bribing a president of the US. The phony pee dossier and the Hunter's-laptop-is-Russian disinformation hoax quickly fade in comparison, but Dershowitz is a smart guy.

What we're seeing from Sen Grassley and Chairman Comer appears to be very carefully calculated releases of precisely limited information about what Zlochevsky knows and what he has, and the way it's coming out also suggests the Republicans have more in reserve. At minimum, they've got to be off balance wondering who's talking go Zlochevsky and what else he's said. Something tells me the Republicans have more than an FD-1023, and it will come out exactly when it suits Sen Grassley and Chairman Comer.

Well, the Whitre House canceled Joe's schedule yesterday and today, ostensibly for a root canal, while even the New York Poat frets that he eats too much ice cream. We live in unserious times.