Yesterday we noted how a major tentpole in the House GOP’s “crime family” investigations of President Biden collapsed when U.S. Attorney David Weiss denied there was any interference in his investigation. Now we have a revelation that manages to be even more stunning while being somehow entirely predictable. We and others last month had some fun at the expense of investigative ringleader Rep. James Comer (R-KY) when he said he had “lost” what he claimed was his top Biden whistleblower. What this meant was never clear and given how things work in Republican investigations it was never certain whether it actually “meant” anything. Now we know what he meant.
Yesterday the Southern District of New York announced a wide-ranging indictment of Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, for various charges including unregistered foreign lobbying for China, sanctions busting for Iran and arms dealing. (Here’s CNN’s run-down of the details.) Luft was indicted last November but remained under seal until yesterday. He was arrested in Cyprus in February to be extradited back to the United States but promptly jumped bail. It turns out Comer really had “lost” his whistleblower because Luft was quite literally on the lam and actually still is.
This is part of a pattern: government workers or others facing workplace or criminal investigations trying to get a get-out-of-jail-free card or at least allies in a tough situation by showing up at the doorstep of Jim Jordan or James Comer basically willing to say quite literally anything. It’s true of course that chancers in a jam often do know things and are willing to talk for protection. But that’s why such claims require real scrutiny, something Republican investigators simply never do. In Luft’s case it’s not at all clear why he would be privy to anything about the President or his son in the first place. Indeed, the pattern is so persistent that it’s pretty clear Republican investigators are, if not explicitly in on the ruse themselves, totally indifferent to the truth of any of their claims.
We saw a slightly different version of this story when Rudy Giuliani was touring through Ukraine and other post-Soviet successor states looking for “dirt” on Joe Biden and predictably hooking up with various Russian intelligence operators and/or grifters happy to tell him whatever he wanted. This, of course, was what got Donald Trump impeached the first time. It’s the same story over and over again.
Needless to say Comer is now claiming Luft’s indictments are retaliation for his “whistleblower” coming forward.