House Oversight Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) refused to apologize on Monday for spreading “lies” and “disinformation” about the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Raskin’s refusal to apologize shows a broader pattern of ignoring mountains of evidence uncovered by House Republicans.
Raskin, who consistently defends and excuses the Bidens’ corruption, previously claimed that a bribery allegation against President Joe Biden was not credible and that the U.S. Attorney’s office in Pittsburgh terminated the probe into the allegation.
“They’ve got nothing on President Joe Biden,” Raskin claimed in September. “All they can do is return to the thoroughly demolished lie that Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump launched five years ago,” alleging the evidence against the Bidens to be a “conspiracy theory” and a “fairytale.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) requested an apology from Raskin on Thursday after former Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brad told investigators the bribery allegation was credible enough to be referred for more investigation, but the FBI was reluctant to investigate.
“My understanding of Mr. Raskin’s public statements is that, based on the determination that I, and my team, found the allegations in the 1023 not credible or other information not credible, we did not escalate the assessment to a limited or full investigation,” Brady told investigators. “That’s not true.”
Raskin dismissed Brady’s comment in a letter to Comer by berating Brady for misunderstanding him. “Mr. Brady’s quarrel is not with my actual statements but with his erroneous ‘understanding’ of my statements,” Raskin replied, refusing to apologize:
I do not know how Mr. Brady developed his ‘understanding’ of my statements, but I never stated that he found the ‘allegations in the 1023 not credible or other information not credible.’ I would have had no basis to opine on his specific opinion of the credibility of the Form FD-1023.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released the FD-1023 file in July that alleges Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, paid Joe and Hunter Biden each $5 million after then-Vice President Biden withheld aid to Ukraine until then-Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma.
WATCH: Joe Biden Admits Threatening to Withhold Aid to Ukraine Unless the Prosecutor Investigating Burisma Was Fired
“I’ve seen better apologies,” Comer (R-KY) told Breitbart News. “It’s no surprise that Ranking Member Raskin is still dedicated to playing a Biden family defense lawyer instead of fulfilling his oversight responsibilities.”
“Ranking Member Raskin and Committee Democrats continue to peddle White House talking points in a desperate attempt to run cover for President Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence peddling schemes,” he added. “The Oversight Committee won’t be distracted by the Ranking Member’s antics and will continue to follow the Biden money trail and expose Joe Biden’s corruption and abuse of public office.”
Ukrainian businessman and founder of the Burisma Holdings company, Mykola Zlochevsky, on March 19, 2012. during a media conference. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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