Do New York’s Dan Goldman and Maryland’s Jamie Raskin understand what the “Streisand effect” is?
According to the BBC, in 2003, Barbra Streisand sued an aerial photographer who took photographs of her Malibu, California home and uploaded them online. Prior to that point, hardly anyone had viewed those photographs. Prior to the dismissal of her litigation, the website containing the photographs was averaging 420,000 monthly views, which was not an insignificant number in the pre-Facebook dial-up internet days.
Granted, Gal Luft already has an audience on the right side of the political spectrum, as the Israeli-American dual citizen is now acting as a whistleblower against the Biden family, claiming he met with the FBI in 2019 to discuss corruption allegations involving Hunter and Jim Biden’s ties to Chinese energy firm CEFC. The New York Post describes Luft as “well-connected in intelligence circles in Washington, D.C., where he ran a think tank, the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, with former CIA Director James Woolsey and former national security adviser Robert McFarlane as advisers.”
Before he was scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee in February, he was detained in Cyprus on an Interpol arrest warrant involving allegations of weapons trafficking. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, characterized him as a “missing” witness after he skipped bond and fled into concealment.
In a 14-minute recording published by the Post last week, he alleged that Hunter Biden was receiving $100,000 per month from CEFC, while his uncle Jim was receiving $65,000, and that Hunter had a mole within the FBI who allowed him to inform CEFC officials that they were under investigation.
This was released on July 5th. Five days later, Luft was charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act by failing to register as an agent for the Chinese communist regime. Reps. Goldman and Raskin wrote a letter to Comer accusing him of amplifying Mr. Luft’s accusations. This was done to emphasize the point that one does not ask questions about the Bidens and their strange business relationships with foreign corporations and powers.
Barbra would be delighted.
“We are concerned that an official committee of the House of Representatives has been manipulated by an apparent con man who, while a fugitive from justice, attempted to fortify his defense by laundering unfounded and potentially false allegations through Congress,” the representatives wrote in the letter.
“We urge you to immediately initiate an investigation into whether the Committee may have been unwittingly duped by Mr. Luft in furtherance of the [Chinese Communist Party’s] interests as well as any potentially false statements made by Mr. Luft,” the letter continued.
“It appears as if Mr. Luft sought ‘whistleblower’ status from you in an effort to defend himself while a fugitive from justice. Worse yet, this latest episode also raises concerns that Mr. Luft may be manipulating your investigation not only for his own self-interest but perhaps also in furtherance of the [Chinese Communist Party’s] efforts to undermine U.S. security interests and the President of the United States.”
Rep. Goldman defamed Luft’s reputation further during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” before he even confronts trial in the United States. (It’s worth noting that one of the reasons Mr. Luft says he’s in hiding is because he can’t get a fair trial — or will even be able to bring up the Biden name at trial, in the same way that CEFC official Patrick Ho was barred from saying it at his New York trial, despite the fact that the first person he tried to call from jail after his 2017 arrest was Hunter Biden.
Goldman said Luft is “certainly not a legitimate whistleblower. And what he is is an alleged con man, as we said in the letter, who brokered a weapons for oil deal between China and Iran multiple times, who was an unregistered agent advancing the interests of the CCP in the United States — and who very importantly, is indicted on making false statements to the FBI including in the very meeting that he provided information about Hunter Biden to the FBI.”
Republicans are so desperate to dig up dirt on President Biden that they eagerly embrace a witness who has been charged with being an agent of the CCP. @RepRaskin and I want to know if @GOPOversight is jeopardizing our national security. pic.twitter.com/PVLonqEEdt
— Rep. Dan Goldman (@RepDanGoldman) July 12, 2023