Still Another Biden Defense

Some readers may know Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) as the man who recently defended President Joe Biden against a corruption allegation by appealing to the authority of former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who then pronounced Mr. Raskin to be full of it.

Other readers may know Rep. Raskin as the lawmaker who refuses to accept presidential election results and also investigates people who refuse to accept presidential election results. There’s also his lovely habit of lauding democracy while also arguing that Americans aren’t capable of deciding for themselves which statements to credit in public discourse.

Now Mr. Raskin, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, is out with a new defense of the Biden administration’s investigation of Biden family enrichment schemes.

Specifically, Mr. Raskin is taking issue with a press release from the office of committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.). The Monday press release quoted Mr. Comer:

Today, a former FBI supervisory special agent assigned to the FBI’s Wilmington office and the Biden criminal investigation confirmed key portions of the IRS whistleblower’s testimony. The night before the interview of Hunter Biden, both Secret Service headquarters and the Biden transition team were tipped off about the planned interview. On the day of the Hunter Biden interview, federal agents were told to stand by and could not approach Hunter Biden—they had to wait for his call. As a result of the change in plans, IRS and FBI criminal investigators never got to interview Hunter Biden as part of the investigation.

The release then reported “key takeaways from today’s transcribed interview of a former FBI supervisory special agent”:

As part of the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, there were multiple witness interviews planned for December 8, 2020. IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and the former FBI supervisory special agent were assigned to interview Hunter Biden.

On the evening of December 7, 2020, Shapley and the FBI supervisory special agent learned that FBI headquarters had notified Secret Service headquarters about the planned interview with Hunter Biden. Additionally, they learned the Biden transition team was notified about the planned interview. This was not the original plan by the career agents, which frustrated their investigative efforts because people found out who didn’t need to know.

On December 8, 2020, Shapley and the FBI supervisory special agent were notified they would not be allowed to approach Hunter Biden’s house and instead would have to wait near his residence until Hunter Biden contacted them.

The former FBI supervisory special agent told committee investigators he had never been told to wait outside to be contacted by the subject of an investigation.

As a result of these actions, Shapley and the former FBI supervisory special agent never interviewed Hunter Biden.

Mr. Raskin has fired back with his own release claiming that Mr. Comer “has cherry-picked and distorted statements of a witness to advance Republicans’ false narrative about political interference in the Hunter Biden investigation.” Mr. Raskin then shares a number of his own recollections from the interview, for example:

The FBI agent expressed his understanding that, in determining whether to seek a warrant, it is proper for prosecutors to consider additional considerations, beyond whether probable cause exists, such as whether to apply for warrants that would raise election year sensitivities—per DOJ policy.

If Mr. Raskin is reporting the comment accurately, it still doesn’t contradict any of the “key takeaways” reported by Mr. Comer. Similarly, there’s this from Mr. Raskin:

The supervisory special agent further pointed out that, in his experience, investigation targets who are attorneys, like Hunter Biden, rarely accept being interviewed by federal agents.

Is anyone arguing that Hunter Biden was eager to be interviewed by the FBI and the IRS about his foreign money schemes?

One point from Mr. Raskin does seem plausible:

Further, although Republicans have tried to cast in harsh light the decision by FBI headquarters to alert the Secret Service of its intent to interview Hunter Biden, the FBI agent explained it was necessary to do so given Hunter Biden’s status as a protectee.

But then Mr. Raskin states:

The witness also provided that, while he was told a ‘transition team’ was also notified by FBI headquarters, he was not provided any actual details as to what transition team this referred to, and he did not know anything about whether they were actually notified. The witness also indicated he did not suspect any political purpose or improper motivation behind FBI headquarters’ putative decision in December 2020 to notify a ‘transition team’ and U.S. Secret Service headquarters prior to Hunter Biden’s interview.

So the agent was told a transition team was notified. Regardless of whether or not the agent shares Mr. Comer’s assessment of the politics at work, it seems we’re still waiting for Mr. Raskin to report anything that rebuts Mr. Comer’s “key takeaways.”

And Mr. Comer’s takeaways will probably strike most Americans as very disturbing.

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There Is No Free Lunch
And in Europe these days even discounted meals can be difficult to afford in an economy that has stagnated. The Journal’s Tom Fairless reports:

Europe’s current predicament has been long in the making. An aging population with a preference for free time and job security over earnings ushered in years of lackluster economic and productivity growth. Then came the one-two punch of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s protracted war in Ukraine. By upending global supply chains and sending the prices of energy and food rocketing, the crises aggravated ailments that had been festering for decades...

The pain reaches far into the middle classes. In Brussels, one of Europe’s richest cities, teachers and nurses stood in line on a recent evening to collect half-price groceries from the back of a truck. The vendor, Happy Hours Market, collects food close to its expiration date from supermarkets and advertises it through an app... Similar services have sprung up across the region, marketing themselves as a way to reduce food waste as well as save money. TooGoodToGo, a company founded in Denmark in 2015 that sells leftover food from retailers and restaurants, has 76 million registered users across Europe, roughly three times the number at the end of 2020. In Germany, Sirplus, a startup created in 2017, offers “rescued” food, including products past their sell-by date, on its online store. So does Motatos, created in Sweden in 2014 and now present in Finland, Germany, Denmark and the U.K...

The eurozone economy grew about 6% over the past 15 years, measured in dollars, compared with 82% for the U.S.

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James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival” and also the co-author of “Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts and Bailouts at Citi.”

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(Teresa Vozzo helps compile Best of the Web.)

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