Hunter Biden's plea deal launches Nancy Mace on conspiracy theory rant

WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Mace (R-NC) spoke with Raw Story on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the plea deal made in the case of President Joe Biden's son.

And, like many Republicans, she wasn't happy with its leniency. Hunter Biden is expected to escape jail time by pleading guilty to tax evasion and making a diversion agreement that would let him avoid prosecution on a felony gun charge,

"The fact that Hunter Biden gets to walk away," Mace said. "The American people are going to see through this."

She then launched into demands to see Hunter Biden prosecuted for other alleged crimes that the Republicans suspect him off – despite having been able to show no conclusive evidence.

"After I reviewed the 1023 form," she said referring to an FBI form that Republicans have claimed links Biden and his family to a bribery case in Ukraine, "I actually have more questions than I do answers. So I would like for them to come to answer questions. I want access to the other 1023 forms."

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has subpoenaed all documents regarding the Ukraine matter, and there was only one 1023 form.

Mace went on to allege that there are 17 recordings out there involving the Bidens and Ukraine, citing Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) – who has recanted the story she was repeating, saying that they might not exist.

“We don’t know if they’re legit or not, but we know that the foreign national claims he has them,” Comer had said of the so-called recordings, speaking to Newsmax.

Rudy Giuliani also told Newsmax last week that the owner of the recordings had died under suspicious circumstances and that her husband, the former Burisma CEO, had also died under suspicious circumstances.

"The Hunter Biden investigation can't end there just because he got a slap on the wrist," Mace said. "I absolutely think that the FBI and DOJ should investigate other allegations where there's evidence of bank records and suspicious activity reports, or the 1023 document."

Republicans have honed in on the FBI's 1023 document, a form used when someone in the public has a "tip" with no evidence attached, despite no reason to believe it points to a crime. Former Attorney General Bill Barr has suggested that the 1023 may have come from Rudy Giuliani's conspiracy theories. The allegations on the form are "second hand," according to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) who has also read the form.

Recently, Raskin claimed that under Attorney General Bill Barr, the DOJ "terminated" the bribery conspiracy that Mace referred to. Barr responded to Raskin, saying he referred everything to the U.S. Attorney in Delaware.

"One investigation became public this week after federal investigators served a subpoena on Hunter Biden. The subpoena sought detailed financial information in connection with a criminal tax investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, according to people familiar with the matter," The Journal reported.

"Federal prosecutors in Manhattan had also been looking at Hunter Biden’s business and financial dealings, as part of a broader criminal investigation that two people familiar with the matter described as an international financial investigation that had been going on for at least a year. Hunter Biden is implicated in that investigation but was never a specific target for criminal prosecution, the people said."

In his book, Barr also called the Ukraine bribery scandal an "effort" by Giuliani and Trump, he acknowledges it was "harebrained" trying to push back on the Russia probe by crafting a fake scandal for Joe Biden.

"At the time, I was not aware of the extent to which Giuliani and others had been actively pressing the Ukrainians to launch investigations," he writes later in the book.

"President Trump’s impeachment was a self-inflicted wound. Much of the blame for getting the President impeached, in my view, must be laid at the feet of Rudy Giuliani," the book goes on. "The idea that the President’s allies could debunk the collusion narrative by digging up evidence hidden in Ukraine — or that they could get the media to report on the Biden family’s shameless behavior there—was a fantasy. The idea that goading the Ukrainians into investigating Hunter Biden would help the President’s reelection bid was idiotic beyond belief. The whole scheme was bound to backfire. And Giuliani’s public grandstanding, and the unsavory figures he got involved with, ended up seriously undermining his credibility — not to mention tainting the President."

At one point, Barr even screamed at the president over the conspiracy.

"Dammit, Mr. President, I am not going to talk to you about Hunter Biden!" Barr yelled. "Period!"

These are the same theories that Mace told Raw Story should be "investigated" by the Justice Department.

Mace went on to attack the DOJ, calling it an "incompetent plea deal." She claimed that all of the bribery accusations that have come from Giuliani "about Ukraine and Russia and China going into the back pockets of the president's family, maybe even the president himself, don't you think that should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law?"