Uh-Oh: Giuliani’s “Biden Sources” Charged With Being Putin Agents

Ukraine’s Security Service notified Rudy Giuliani’s top Ukrainian allies on Monday that they are suspects of treason, citing evidence that the officials participated in activities aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Ukrainian member of parliament, Oleksandr Dubinsky, ex-Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach, and ex-prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk are suspected of joining an organization founded by chief members of Russia’s Military Intelligence while Giuliani worked to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in 2019, according to a statement.

The organization received more than $10 million from the Russian Federation to “discredit” Ukraine on the international stage.

“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and complicate Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a statement.

Dubinsky, who is also suspected of spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership, will be detained for 60 days, or until January 12, 2024, reported Reuters. Dubinsky was not named in the charging document but was identified as the subject of the remand by other lawmakers, according to the outlet.

Giuliani met with Dubinsky and Derkach in Kyiv in December 2019 as part of his “documentary series” with One America News Network on election meddling, hoping to discredit the presidential election results.

A former Ukrainian presidential adviser, Igor Novikov, told Time in 2021 that he believed “Mayor Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine threatened our national security” and that the country should not allow efforts to “drag our country into our allies’ domestic politics” to go “unpunished.”

Giuliani and Trump have both pleaded not guilty in the criminal trial charging them and 16 others with attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Representative James Comer had a complete meltdown Tuesday when asked about loans he appears to have given his brother.

Comer has insisted for months that Joe Biden is guilty of corruption, most recently citing a check the president gave his brother Jim Biden in 2018. But last week, a Daily Beast report revealed that Comer and his own brother have engaged in multiple land swaps over the years through family-owned businesses that do not appear to actually exist.

When Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz asked Comer about the loans during a House hearing Tuesday, Comer grew incensed.

“I’ve never loaned my brother one penny,” Comer said, calling the story “completely false.”

Comer also said it was “bullshit” that the story said he owned a shell company. As he continued to deny that he had loaned his brother money or that his family had engaged in shady business dealings, he grew more heated.

“You look like a Smurf here, just going around and stuff!” he yelled at Moskowitz. “You continue to spew disinformation!”

As Moskowitz shouted questions, specifically why voters should believe Comer, the Kentucky Republican yelled over him. He told the Democrat to go to Comer’s district and see all the land Comer owns for himself.

At one point, Comer said, “You’ve already been proven a liar, Mr. Moskowitz!”

“Who’s proven me a liar—you? Your word means nothing!” Moskowitz shot back.

Moskowitz then challenged Comer to sit for a deposition about the loan. Comer said he would be happy to sit down with Hunter and Jim Biden.

Before the hearing returned to its original agenda, Moskowitz delivered a parting shot.

“We believe everything in the media, like when you go on Fox News and say things—and everyone says that they’re true—with innuendos and ifs and maybes, the Biden family, the crime family, all this nonsense,” he said. “But when it happens to you, it’s fake news.”

“There should be the same standard. You said at the beginning of this year, the Biden administration can’t have it both ways. Neither can you, Mr. Chairman!”

A fight nearly broke out during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, committee hearing on Tuesday after Senator Markwayne Mullin read aloud a union boss’s tweet snubbing the freshman Oklahoma congressman as a “clown” and a “fraud.”

“Sir, this is a time, this is a place, if you want to run your mouth we can be two consenting adults and finish it here,” Mullin said.

“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” responded International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien.

“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked. “Stand your butt up then.”

“You stand your butt up, big guy,” retorted O’Brien.

Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly defused the fight after Mullin rose out of his chair, slamming his gavel while calling the committee to order.

“You’re a United States senator, sit down,” boomed Sanders. “This is a hearing. God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress.”

Moments later, the senator posted a photo of himself before a table of guns, captioned, “Let’s do it. Anyplace, anytime.”

A far-right evangelical pastor is scheduled to take the stage at Tuesday’s “March for Israel” rally on Washington’s National Mall, despite a history of controversial remarks that include claiming Jews were responsible for the Holocaust.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to attend alongside televangelist Pastor John Hagee, a reputed antisemite, including numerous politicians from both sides of the aisle like House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

“I am horrified that he was given this platform,” said Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of Americans for Peace Now. “His history of hateful comments should disqualify him from decent company, much less from speaking on stage. He is not welcome and should not speak.”

Previously, Hagee claimed that Hitler came from a lineage of “accursed, genocidally murderous half-breed Jews” and suggested that it was Jews’ “disobedience” toward God that led to their persecution.

Such comments were enough to sour public opinion on Hagee in the past. In 2008, GOP presidential nominee Senator John McCain ultimately shirked Hagee’s endorsement after reports emerged that the minister believed Adolf Hitler had fulfilled God’s will by becoming a “hunter,” driving Jews back to Israel.

“‘Behold, I will send for many fishers, and after that I will send for many hunters. And they the hunters shall hunt them,’” Hagee said during a sermon, referring to Jeremiah 16:16. “That would be the Jews.… Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun, and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter,” Hagee said, according to a transcript of his sermon.

McCain subsequently called the comments “deeply offensive and indefensible.”

The war between Israel and Hamas is now in its sixth week. Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported that more than 11,100 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict so far—or one out of every 200 people—with most of the dead being women and children. Approximately 240 hostages still remain in Gaza after Hamas militants attacked a music festival in southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people.

Republican infighting is so bad that lawmakers are getting into physical altercations in the halls of Congress.

NPR reporter Claudia Grisales tweeted Tuesday that while she was talking to Representative Tim Burchett after the Republican conference meeting, Kevin McCarthy walked past. As he walked behind Burchett, McCarthy shoved the Tennessee lawmaker, forcing him to lunge forward.

Grisales noted that she has “NEVER seen this on Capitol Hill” and said that both she and Burchett were stunned. Burchett called McCarthy a “jerk” and said he had never done anything like that before, before chasing after the former House speaker.

“Hey Kevin, why’d you walk behind me and elbow me in the back?” Burchett demanded when he caught up.

McCarthy denied elbowing him, and Burchett shot back, “You got no guts, you did so.… The reporter said it right there, what kind of chicken move is that? You’re pathetic, man, you are so pathetic.”

Burchett told Grisales it was his first interaction with McCarthy since voting to oust the California lawmaker as speaker. Burchett called McCarthy a “jerk” several more times and also called him “childish.”

“He’s on a downhill spiral,” Burchett said. “That was pretty gutless of him. I’m disappointed in him.”

Burchett was one of eight Republicans who voted in early October to boot McCarthy from the speakership. Tension was already running high within the GOP, and vacating the speaker clearly did nothing to improve intraparty relationships.

Ironically, Burchett had warned in July that “a fistfight could break out at any moment.”

He told The Daily Beast that, as a fan of professional wrestling, “it’s entertaining to think that a fistfight could break out at any movement. I kind of dig that.”

At the time, Burchett was talking about tension between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. But it looks like he still got his wish, in a way.