Donald Trump Jr. criticized the Justice Department Thursday evening, alleging there is no “coincidence” between his father’s indictment over mishandling classified documents and an FBI informant’s claim of President Joe Biden accepting a $5 million bribe.
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“On the same day that a story broke about a whistleblower alleging Joe Biden took a 5 million dollar bribe from Burisma in Ukraine, Biden’s corrupt DOJ decides to indict Trump over BS charges,” Trump tweeted. “Do you really think that’s a coincidence?”
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On the same day that a story broke about a whistleblower alleging Joe Biden took a 5 million dollar bribe from Burisma in Ukraine, Biden’s corrupt DOJ decides to indict Trump over BS charges.
Do you really think that’s a coincidence?
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 9, 2023
Donald Trump became the first former president in history to face federal charges after he acknowledged he was informed of a looming indictment filed in the federal district court in Miami. The indictment follows a lengthy investigation into his handling of classified documents he took with him after leaving office and obstructing the government’s attempts to reclaim them.
Donald Trump’s acknowledgment came just hours before FBI Director Christopher Wray granted Republican House Oversight Committee members access to a document alleging Biden’s involvement in a multimillion-dollar payment from Burisma Holdings, where his son Hunter sat on the board, based on 2020 testimony to the FBI from a confidential source.
The document containing the testimony, consisting of allegations relayed to a paid FBI informant, is being used in an active investigation, committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said. The information comes from a “trusted, highly credible” paid FBI informant, according to Republicans, including Comer.
The allegations raised in the FBI document have not been verified as true but came from information the confidential human source learned from a foreign national.
Joe Biden on Thursday brushed off allegations that he was involved in a bribery scheme surrounding a foreign national when he served as vice president.
“Where’s the money? I’m joking. It’s a bunch of malarkey,” he said after a reporter shouted a question about the whistleblower document.
Other allies of the former president, including his attorney, Alina Habba, said the indictment was meant to “distract” from the claims over Joe Biden.
“This is a shiny ball to distract everyone from the whistleblower testimony that came out and the corruption happening in the deep state. Americans are smarter than they think,” Habba told the Washington Examiner.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) chimed in Thursday evening, tweeting, “Imagine being naive enough to believe that the Biden Bribe evidence and Trump indictment happening the same day was a coincidence.”
Imagine being naive enough to believe that the Biden Bribe evidence and Trump indictment happening the same day was a coincidence.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 8, 2023
Earlier on Thursday, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) accused Joe Biden of “gross criminal misconduct,” possibly “treasonous,” over the allegations that he took a bribe from Burisma during his time as vice president, he told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo.
When asked whether he would move to impeach the president if the claim was true, Biggs said, “Absolutely.”
“He would need to be impeached, and then once he was impeached … hopefully there would be some Democrats in the Senate that would recognize how grave this situation is and encourage him to resign like [Barry] Goldwater did to [Richard] Nixon,” Biggs said.
As vice president, Biden threatened in 2015 to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was criticized by many in the West for not doing enough to crack down on corruption. The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and other allies had the same objective.
Joe Biden denied the corruption claims, but his critics highlight remarks in January 2018 where he boasted, “If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.”
Both Comer and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member on the panel, received a slightly redacted copy of the FD-1023 document during a Monday briefing and were allowed to take notes on the substance of the form, though they weren’t allowed to keep it. Facing a contempt of Congress threat, Wray then allowed all other members of the House Oversight Committee to see the document on Thursday.
Raskin repeatedly claimed on Monday, following an FBI briefing, that former Attorney General William Barr ended the investigation into the bribery claims in 2020. But Barr told multiple outlets that is false and that the claims were sent to the U.S. attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, to investigate.
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Donald Trump, who is running against Joe Biden for a second shot at the Oval Office, faces an indictment of seven counts, though it was not clear the charges brought against the former president.
Donald Trump is already under indictment in New York by a local prosecutor in a hush-money case and is under scrutiny by a prosecutor in Georgia over an investigation into his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
