President Biden bribery allegations gain momentum with whistleblower testimony

Julie Reeder

Publisher

Bribery allegations surrounding President Joe Biden have been steadily gaining strength, with recent testimony from Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler, and IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley, adding further weight to the growing concerns. The whistleblowers appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, July 19, to shed light on potential interference and slow-walking by the Justice Department in the criminal probe of Hunter Biden, the President’s son.

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley escalated the situation by releasing the FD-1023 form, which contains explosive allegations that the Biden family received millions of dollars in bribes. The accusations originated from a whistleblower who came forward on Thursday.

PBS reporter Lisa Desjardins reported that the hearing was a “substantive and serious hearing from both sides. These were not just any IRS agents. These were two IRS investigators who were the chief two investigators in the Hunter Biden case. They gave a list of things that they said were out of the norm, unprecedented obstacles and changes in the way that this case worked.”

She continued, “Among a few of those things that they listed, first, at the top, they said that they were not allowed to search Joe Biden’s home where Hunter Biden was living.

Florida Congressman Byron

Donalds told Laura Ingraham last week, “In the hearing today, the Democrats didn’t even bother going at the credibility of Mr. Zeigler and Mr. Shapley because they knew that would be utterly ridiculous. All they wanted to do was focus on Donald Trump. That’s all they did through this hearing, and it was disgusting. No talk about the money that Hunter Biden, Jim Biden and Joe Biden were taking from foreign countries. They didn’t acknowledge the international pay-for-play scheme with the

Biden family. They only wanted to focus on Donald Trump.”

He continued, “I think it’s also indicative of what is going on with Jack Smith and Merrick Garland right now and it’s just funny that these two whistleblowers come forward today and all of a sudden there’s a new indictment with Donald Trump going on,” Donalds continued. “There are serious problems at the Department of Justice and it’s going to take House Republicans to get to the bottom of it.”

Oversight Chairman Jordan (R-Ohio) highlighted the seriousness of the situation, expressing concerns that media outlets may be downplaying the significance of what could be one of the most substantial corruption scandals in modern history. Turley, speaking to “America Reports” co-host John Roberts, stated that the evidence against the Bidens is mounting and emphasized the importance of the whistleblowers’ congressional testimonies.

During the hearing, Rep. Dan Goldman from New York addressed one of the whistleblowers, Gary

Shapley, and questioned him about a WhatsApp message allegedly sent by Hunter Biden to a Chinese businessman. The message reportedly indicated that Joe Biden was present during the exchange, implicating the President directly in the business dealings.

Turley explained that the term “bribery” has significant implications, especially when related to a sitting president, as it constitutes a grave offense mentioned in the impeachment clause. He also pointed out that the President’s denials of any wrongdoing had been ongoing since his candidacy and have persisted during his presidency.

The allegations initially came to light in October 2020 when the New York Post reported on the contents of a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden at a Delaware computer repair shop. The laptop contained emails that shed light on the Biden family’s business dealings. Social media companies and other legacy news organizations faced criticism for suppressing the report, with Twitter even locking several accounts, including those of the New York Post and thenWhite House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, for sharing the information.

Amidst mounting evidence, the Washington Post and New York Times corroborated the data’s authenticity in March 2022, focusing on the Department of Justice’s investigations into Hunter Biden. As the bribery allegations continue to gain traction, the situation remains subject to intense scrutiny, not only into the Biden family, government agencies, but also legacy media who chose not to cover the stories surrounding the Bidens. The House Oversight Committee’s hearing and the whistleblowers’ testimonies have undoubtedly intensified the focus on the issue, leaving many unanswered questions and potential consequences for Hunter Biden, President Biden, and the FBI, DOJ, and the IRS.

Julie Reeder can be reached via email at jreeder@reedermedia. com

Jack Dura and Heather Hollingsworth Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The heavily armed man who ambushed Fargo police officers investigating a fender bender on Friday, July 14 likely had a bigger and bloodier attack in mind, with at least two fairs taking place at the time in and around North Dakota's largest city, authorities said Friday.

Mohamad Barakat killed one officer and wounded two others and a bystander before a fourth officer shot and killed him, ending the July 14 attack.

Over the past five years, Barakat, 37, searched the internet for terms including "kill fast," "explosive ammo," "incendiary rounds," and "mass shooting events," state Attorney General Drew Wrigley said Friday during a news conference in Fargo, a city of about 125,000 people. But perhaps the most chilling search was for "area events where there are crowds," which on July 13 brought up a news article with the headline, "Thousands enjoy first day of Downtown Fargo Street Fair." Had Officer Zach Robinson not killed Barakat, authorities said they shudder to think how much worse the attack might have been. All evidence suggests that Barakat came upon the traffic crash by "happenstance" and that his ensuing ambush was a diversion from his much bigger intended target, Wrigley said.

"The horrible winds of fate sometimes," he said. "Those events fell into place and fell into his path."

On the day of the attack, the downtown fair was in its second day and was less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the crash scene. It's unclear if it was the intended target, though, as Barakat also searched for information on the Red River Valley Fair, which was just a 6-mile (10-kilometer) drive from the scene, the attorney general said.

After driving by the fender bender, Barakat pulled into an adjacent parking lot to watch from his parked car, Wrigley said. He said Barakat's car was loaded with guns, a homemade grenade, more than 1,800 rounds of ammunition, three "largish" containers full of gasoline, plus two propane tanks, one completely filled and the other half-filled not with propane, but with "explosive materials concocted at home, purchased lawfully."

With police and firefighters busy helping, Barakat watched for several minutes until the officers walked by him, when he lifted a .223-caliber rifle out of his car window and began firing, Wrigley said.

The rifle had a binary trigger that allowed it to fire so rapidly that it sounded like an automatic weapon, he said. A binary trigger is a modification that allows a weapon to fire one round when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released — in essence doubling a gun's firing capacity.

The three officers who were shot had no time to react and fell in rapid succession. He also shot and wounded a fleeing woman, Karlee Koswick, who had been involved in the fender bender, he said.

Robinson, who was badly outgunned but was the only officer at the scene who hadn't been shot, engaged Barakat in a two-minute shootout. It ended with Robinson shooting and killing Barakat as bystanders crouched nearby.

Wrigley described Robinson as "the last man standing in that blue line at that moment."

"What he was standing between was not just the horrible events that were unfolding there, but between the horrible events that Mohamad Barakat had envisioned, planned and intended and armed himself for — beyond fully — that day," he said.

Barakat killed Officer Jake Wallin, 23, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard, and wounded Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes. Wallin and Hawes were so new that they were still undergoing field training.

Barakat was a Syrian national who came to the U.S. on an asylum request in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, Wrigley said, adding that he didn't appear to have any ties to the Muslim community in Fargo. He said Barakat had some family in the U.S., but not in the Fargo area, and that investigators are still looking into his history before he arrived in the country.

In recent years, Barakat amassed his arsenal. And his internet searches about causing mayhem date back to 2018, with periods in which they abated before picking back up, the attorney general said. Nothing from online, Barakat's phones, the community or his family suggested he had a hatred of the police, he said.

At this stage in the investigation,