House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY), fresh from the FBI's arrest of one of his key witnesses in his pursuit of President Joe Biden, is now concentrating his energies on a pair of Hunter Biden emails that are reportedly a lot less than the Kentucky Republican is trying to make them out to be.
At issue is Comer's assertion that two Ukraine-related documents noted in special counsel Robert Hur's report on Joe Biden's storage of classified documents — including a 2014 email that Comer claims contains details of classified information — are smoking guns that his Republican-dominated committee needs to investigate.
But, as columnist Glenn Kessler points, they would only be possible if time travel existed.
Kessler's reporting points out the timeline is out of whack and, as he put it, the claim "doesn’t make much sense."
"The 2014 email — which supposedly contained classified information — was written 20 months before these [talking point] documents were produced," he wrote in the Washington Post.
"That doesn’t make much sense. How could the email have been informed by classified information that did not yet exist?" he wrote before adding, "Until now no one has suggested these emails contained classified information."
As for Comer's assertion that a "secret" phone call about Ukrainian government reforms should be investigated, Kessler noted that call was made public the same day it occurred.
Hur's report also made the case there was nothing suspicious in the subject drawing Comer's interest, with the special counsel's office writing, "There may be technical or nuanced reasons to maintain the classification of the call, but no reasonable jury could conclude the call or its contents were national defense information after the end of the Obama administration."
ALSO READ: Prison president: How Donald Trump could serve from behind bars
As for Comer's claim to reporters, "Hunter Biden sent some suspicious emails especially to Ukraine that look like government documents, that meet the criteria of what would be considered a classified document,” Kessler wrote that also falls apart under close scrutiny, with the writer calling it "hyperbolic."
"It would be incorrect to suggest that the Ukraine documents in the Hur report indicate Hunter Biden had access to classified information or distributed classified information to 'our enemies' in exchange for cash," he wrote before pointing out, "These documents simply are on the same subject — Ukraine. But as we have shown, the Hur report says they are not especially secret or important."
You can read more here.
