Jesse Watters on FBI investigation of shooting at Trump rally: “Pittsburgh FBI field office ... buried the Biden bribery tip in Ukraine”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Media Matters has previously documented right-wing media figures pushing debunked claims about the allegations:

Fox News credulously promoted an extraordinary story about President Joe Biden taking a $5 million bribe, now described by federal prosecutors as false, because it appeared to confirm a conspiracy theory the network had pursued for years — one that its own research “Brain Room” had warned was “disinformation” back in 2019.

A federal grand jury last week charged Alexander Smirnov, an FBI confidential informant, with lying to the bureau about Biden and his son, Hunter, in an interview memorialized in a 2020 FD-1023 form. Special counsel David Weiss’ indictment alleges that Smirnov fabricated numerous claims purportedly sourced to an official with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. Smirnov had claimed the official told him — in communications Weiss says never took place — that Burisma hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” and that Joe Biden accepted $5 million in bribes from the company. On Tuesday, Weiss filed a detention memo stating that Smirnov had claimed significant ties with Russian intelligence.

The claim at one point involved a U.S. attorney based in Pittsburgh and the FBI field office there.

From the July 15, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): This was such a colossal security failure that many people are wondering if this was sabotage. Was somebody on the inside compromised? There's no evidence of that, but the way the agencies are handling this investigation is unacceptable. 

We're learning more details about the shooter. Reports say that he had a transmitter strapped to his body and a receiver hooked up to explosives in the trunk of his car. He was trying to trigger an explosion as a distraction maybe before taking his shot? He purchased 50 rounds of ammo just before opening fire, just hours. And lied to his dad that he was going to the gun range that day.

Finally, the FBI gained access to his phone, they say, but the Bureau says they don't have a motive, which doesn't track. Every one of these assassins or mass shooters have ideologies. They have digital footprints. And they want to be infamous. How is Crooks a ghost? The FBI couldn't find the motive of the Vegas shooter, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, never zeroed in on the Jan. 6 pipe bomber, manufactured the Russia hoax, even doctored a warrant to spy on Trump. This is the same FBI who cooked up the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot and had informants involved with the Pulse nightclub shooting.

The Pittsburgh FBI field office is running point on this investigation. Just happens to be the same field office that buried the Biden bribery tip in Ukraine. FBI director Chris Wray won't resign, but Trump will probably fire him when he's reelected.  But will Biden fire Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle?