Briefly Noted: Two Terrific Reads
You've probably read about Chuck Grassley pressing DoD for more information on Stefan Halper and the Office of National Assessment (ONA). Halper is also being sued by Svetlana Lokhova for falsing smearing her as having an affair with Michael Flynn. Zerohedge has a terrific summary of it all, including this angle:
Russiagate Spy Paid $1 Million By Obama Was WaPo Deep Throat
Over at AmThinker this afternoon Monica Showalter asks Will an Arkansas stripper finally shut down the Schiff show? Showalter goes through the whole sordid story--not just the sex and drugs, but the Ukrainian and Chinese money, too. Funny, isn't it, how the MSM doesn't seem interested in how Joe Bidens relations get rich off foreign governments?
There's a lot in the article, but the part I enjoyed was this quote from Andrew McCarthy. Most observers have thought that part of the reason for the Impeachment Theater is to draw attention away from the Biden family, but as McCarthy points out , Adam Schiff has done just the opposite:
In sum, the House’s chief prosecutor represented to the American people that President Trump had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to fabricate a false case against Biden. In any court in America, that would open the door to the Trump defense team to show that this was not the president’s intention at all; he was simply asking Zelensky to look into a situation that cried out for an inquiry.
In light of Schiff’s explicit allegation, the president is entitled to an opportunity to show that there was reason for him to believe that a notoriously corrupt Ukrainian energy company had retained Hunter Biden and paid him a fortune despite his lack of qualifications; and that later, despite the blatant conflict of interest, then–vice president Biden extorted Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, threatening to withhold $1 billion in desperately needed funds.
Schiff insists that Trump’s claims in this regard are false. But his mere say-so does not prove falsity, no more than his mere say-so proves that Trump wanted Ukraine to “make up dirt” on Biden. Figuring out who has the better of a factual dispute is what a trial is about. If a litigant does not want to create a dispute, it’s up to the litigant to steer clear of the issue.
Adam Schiff steered his case straight into the Bidens.