I wrote about this story earlier today, pointing out that prior to this week the media’s general approach to unsubstantiated allegations about a US president was to publish the allegations and hash them out in public with the understanding that someone else was responsible for figuring out what’s true later.

This afternoon, Fox News has another update on the story. This report claims the source behind the allegation is considered credible and has been used by the FBI in multiple previous investigations. Boy, this is really giving me a Christopher Steele flashback.

A source familiar told Fox News Digital on Friday that the confidential human source who provided the Biden information to the FBI was a “pre-existing” FBI source who has been used in multiple investigative matters separate from the Biden information.

The source told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source was used by the FBI for “at least several years” before the generation of the June 2020 FD-1023 form detailing the Biden allegations.

The source also told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source has been “consistently reviewed by the FBI” and has been “found to be highly credible.”

According to the whistleblower who told Fox News about the existence of this FD-1023 form containing this allegation, it’s a “precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed.”

It definitely sounds like something that should be investigated but I think we’ve all learned by now that the FBI’s judgment often leaves something to be desired. They had worked with Christopher Steele before the dossier and considered him credible as well, at least until it became clear he was doing his best to spread the story in the media at the behest of his partisan paymasters.

In fact, the FBI realized pretty quickly that the dossier was unverified junk, certainly quicker than the media did. Steele’s sub-sources were just passing along hearsay that wasn’t corroborated by anything and in some cases was contradicted by facts. And yet the Russia collusion story dragged on for years. So far the way this is being hyped is reminding me a lot of the Steele dossier only this time it’s the right playing it up in advance of the facts.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨

FBI Director Wray has confirmed the existence of the FD-1023 form alleging then-Vice President Biden engaged in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national.

He’s allowing this unclassified record to be reviewed at the FBI but hasn’t produced it to…

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) May 31, 2023

Who knows, maybe there’s something to this. I don’t think anyone knows at this point, not based on the very little information that has been made public so far. Until we know a lot more about the source and the specifics of the allegation there’s no reason to get excited about it. If it’s true it should be possible to verify some of the claims. If not, it doesn’t deserve anyone’s attention. So let’s wait for some proof before kicking off another partisan circus based on fake claims.

That said, I really will be interested to see how partisan Democrats (including those in the media) who went all in on the Steele dossier handle this story. Time to break out the Jiffy-Pop and watch them sweat a bit as they try to explain their own double standards.