Gerth: James Comer is lying about his Biden investigation, and Trump loves him for it

Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press,” President Donald Trump brought up the name of one of his new favorite congressmen — Kentucky’s Jamie Comer.

In the interview with Kristen Welker, Trump called Comer “fantastic” and “very legitimate” because of the way Comer has gone about investigating Hunter Biden.

Why wouldn't the former president — who has set the bar for flat-out lying — love Comer?

In his zeal to smear Joe Biden with the sins of his son, Comer has taken duplicity to a new level.

In just the last few months, Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has hyped the testimony of one “whistle blower” who claimed without any proof that Joe Biden had been in a deal to trade personal favors for foreign aid.

“Well, unfortunately, we can’t track down the informant. We are hopeful the informant is still there,” Comer said in May on FOX News after weeks of suggesting blockbuster proof of illegal activity.

Turns out, his star witness has been on the lam for the past year because he has been charged in federal court with acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Chinese government.

Comer claimed another witness would testify that Joe Biden took part in meetings with his son’s business partners. In fact, that witness said Hunter Biden often called him and put him on speaker long enough for Biden, who was vice president at the time, to say little more than “Hello.”

In the lead-up to the interview with that witness, Comer claimed the former business partner of Hunter Biden would also provide testimony that would show that Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that put Hunter Biden on its board of directors, believed it would benefit from the firing of Ukraine general prosecutor Viktor Shokin when Joe Biden pushed for it.

In fact, he had been told repeatedly that Burisma would benefit from the do-nothing prosecutor remaining in office.

On and on it goes.

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After nine months as the House’s chief inquisitor, Comer has proved that Hunter Biden has tried to trade on the family name, that he had dirty pictures of himself on his computer and had him doing what appeared to be cocaine.

He’s used a lot of innuendo when he has gone on conservative television shows but he’s not produced an iota of proof of a single illegal act by Joe Biden. In fact, he hasn’t even alleged any specific crimes he says were committed by Joe Biden.

In May, his claims even underwhelmed FOX’s Steve Doocy. When Comer went on "FOX & Friends" to hype a report his committee wrote detailing payments to Hunter Biden, his business associates and Biden’s brother, Doocy eviscerated him.

“I know the Republicans said that the smoking gun were these financial records that you were able to subpoena and got your hands on,” Doocy said. “But that’s just your suggestion. You actually don’t have any facts to that point. You’ve got some circumstantial evidence. And the other thing is, of all those names, the one person who didn’t profit is — there is no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.”

When you’ve lost Steve Doocy, you’ve lost the war.

This summer, Comer claimed that Hunter Biden had received $20 million to $30 million from foreign sources, but the fact is only $7 million went to members of the Biden family — mostly to Hunter and none to Joe — and the rest went to Hunter Biden’s business partners.

On thing I’ve learned in nearly 36 years as a journalist, when you’ve got the goods on someone, you don’t need to lie, make things up and overstate the evidence you’ve got.

In June, after ominous warnings that there were recordings that showed Biden shaking down foreign leaders, he had to acknowledge those recordings might not exist. They haven’t shown up yet.

In May, he again went on conservative television to talk about a document that was in possession of the FBI that he said proved there was a bribe paid to Joe Biden — but the “proof" was an uncorroborated tip given to the FBI that the Trump-era FBI couldn’t prove.

(We should note here, that tip came from the guy who was on the lam after he was indicted a year earlier.)

Comer has claimed Hunter Biden had created 20 “shell companies” that received foreign payments and served no legitimate purpose, but the Washington Post looked into the claim and found legitimate purposes for 17 of the companies.

The newspaper couldn’t figure out why two of the companies existed, and one other company may not even belong to Hunter Biden.

Don’t get me wrong. Hunter Biden is a hot mess.

He’s already settled up with the federal government because he didn’t pay taxes for two years.

Now he stands accused of lying on a federal form about his drug addiction in order to obtain a firearm, and possessing a firearm. If he’s convicted, the federal government sentencing guidelines probably call for about three years in prison, said Scott Cox, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer.

Because Biden doesn’t have a criminal record and the gun wasn’t used in another crime, Cox said he’d ask for six months on home incarceration with work release and community service.

But heck, it’s questionable if the possession of a firearms charge is even constitutional after the Supreme Court last year embraced insanity and said any laws restricting gun ownership must have a foundation in 18th-century (or sometimes 19th-century) law.

Now, based on what Comer has uncovered, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called for impeachment hearings.

I can only assume he’s talking about impeaching Hunter Biden and removing his from his current office of … um, … presidential son? He’s the only one there is a bit of evidence against.

While Joe Biden would likely be against this, as he clearly loves his son, no matter how big is a screwup he is, it might make his reelection next year easier. And who knows. Maybe Hunter Biden can convince Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones’ guitarist, to adopt him.

Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, baby.

But Comer hasn’t found a lick of evidence against Joe Biden.

Not a lick.

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That doesn’t seem to matter to McCarthy or to Trump, who are clearly trying to shift attention away from the fact that a bunch of regular Joes in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Palm Beach, Florida, have found cause to charge Trump with 91 crimes.

The charges against Trump range from violating campaign finance laws, to stealing government secrets and lying about it, to fraudulently trying to steal an election.

And so Comer presses forward with his innuendo and his lies, which makes him, in Trump’s eyes “fantastic” and “very legitimate.”

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Biden impeachment inquiry: James Comer is lying, and Trump loves it