Dem Rep. Jared Moskowitz dons Putin mask to troll Republicans ahead of Biden impeachment hearing
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Russian President Vladimir Putin was spotted on Capitol Hill ahead of Wednesday’s House impeachment inquiry hearing — sort of.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) donned a Putin mask ahead of the House Oversight Committee hearing on allegations about the first family’s business dealings overseas in a swipe at Republicans leading the inquiry.
“I just came to thank [Oversight Committee Chairman] James Comer for taking all of our intelligence and using it in the committee,” Moskowitz, 43, told reporters as “Putin.”
“Maybe he can come see the technology in the grocery stores,” the Democrat added in a reference to conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s recent trip to Moscow to interview the Kremlin tyrant, during which Carlson gushed about the prices at a Russian supermarket.
Sadly, Moskowitz did not keep the mask on during the hearing, which featured ex-Hunter Biden business partners Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis.
Democrats have revived allegations that the case against the Bidens is based on Russian intelligence after former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov was indicted last month on charges of making misleading statements to the bureau.
Notably, Smirnov claimed that the owner of Burisma Holdings, Mykola Zlochevsky, had said he paid $5 million each to President Biden and his son Hunter to secure the ouster of Ukraine’s prosecutor general, who had been investigating Burisma.
“House Oversight Republicans opened this investigation into Joe Biden with [Smirnov’s] 1023 form, which has now been proven to come right from Russian intelligence,” Moskowitz’s office claimed to The Post.
“James Comer did the bidding of Vladimir Putin. The mask was worn to provide that visual.”
In fact, while prosecutors say that Smirnov fabricated the bribery allegation against the Bidens, the indictment against him attributes a different claim to Russian intelligence — that Hunter Biden had stayed at a Kyiv hotel that was “under the control of the Russians.”
Democrats on the panel invited Lev Parnas, an ex-associate of former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani to the hearing. Parnas, now 52, collaborated with Giuliani to unearth dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden before disavowing the whole enterprise.
Parnas was later sentenced to 20 months behind bars after being convicted in October 2021 of campaign finance violations and other crimes.
“Lev Parnas is ashamed of what he did to serve the interests of Russian propaganda and Putin’s lies,” Rep Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the Oversight Committee, said in his opening remarks.
Wednesday is the second public hearing that the GOP-led three-panel impeachment inquiry has held, with the first taking place in late September.
Hunter Biden turned down an invite to attend after giving a closed-door deposition Feb. 28.
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