Republicans' Star Hunter Biden Witness Is an Epic Disaster
By: Tori Otten (The New Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As if it wasn't bad enough already, a new Justice Department memo says ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov confessed that he has ties to Russian intelligence.
Kent Nishimura/Getty ImagesHouse Oversight Chair James Comer
Republicans' main witness in their efforts to impeach Joe Biden has already been charged with lying to the FBI. Now he has also admitted to having ties to Russian intelligence officers.
Alexander Smirnov, a longtime FBI informant with ties to Ukraine, had claimed to have proof of Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch. Republicans repeatedly touted Smirnov's claims in their quest to impeach the president. But last week, the Justice Department announced that it was charging Smirnov with making a false statement and creating a false record related to the bribery allegation.
Now, in a detention memo filed Tuesday, the Justice Department revealed that Smirnov confessed that Russian intelligence officers helped him smear Hunter Biden.
"During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about" the younger Biden, the filing said.
Smirnov also told the FBI that he had had repeated contact with a Russian official who, as Smirnov told it, was "the son of a former high-ranking Russian government official, someone who purportedly controls two groups of individuals tasked with carrying out assassination efforts in a third-party country, a Russian representative to another country, and … someone with ties to a particular Russian intelligence service."
Smrinov initially tried to spread the Biden Ukrainian corruption story just before the 2020 election, but Justice Department prosecutors are warning that Smirnov's "misinformation" goes far beyond that.
"He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November," they said in the filing.
The memo notes that Smirnov himself reported several meetings with Russian officials as recently as December 2023.
The charges against Smirnov are the latest major fail in Republicans' attempts to impeach Biden, which has been nothing but a comedy of errors. For almost a year, the GOP has insisted that Biden and his son are guilty of corruption. Republicans have not produced a shred of concrete evidence of their claims, but they have repeatedly upheld accusations from a supposedly credible but confidential FBI source (whom we now know is Smirnov) as reason enough to keep investigating the president.
Last July, Senator Chuck Grassley released the FBI materials, over the bureau's objections, related to the bribery accusations. But the documents showed nothing.
Meanwhile, all of the other witnesses that Republicans have called, claiming that their testimony will blow the case wide open, have instead debunked every single accusation against the Biden family.
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Trump must have missed a payment.
Too bad shame is not a thing anymore, other wise there might be a run on it in the Republican congressional committees.
The former FBI informant who has been charged with falsely stating that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden accepted a bribe allegedly has ties to "high-level" Russian intelligence officials.
Alexander Smirnov was hit with felony charges last week, accused of making false statements and manufacturing false records concerning the Bidens' business dealings in Ukraine. Documents filed in court by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday argue that Smirnov should remain behind bars pending his trial due to "extensive foreign ties" that include contact with "Russian intelligence agencies."
The DOJ filing states that Smirnov recently met with someone he "described as a high-ranking member of a specific Russian foreign intelligence service" and had connections to multiple Russian officials and a person involved in "carrying out assassination efforts in a third-party country."
The Context
As a "confidential human source" in June 2020, Smirnov claimed executives at Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid the Bidens "$5 million each" in exchange for favors from Joe Biden during his term as vice president. The claim was at the heart of the impeachment inquiry that House Republicans launched against the president last year.
Special Counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing the Hunter Biden investigation, announced last week that Smirnov was facing felony charges for fabricating the bribery claim. Democrats quickly pounced on the revelation, arguing that it bolsters their claim that the impeachment inquiry is a politically motivated effort intended to derail Joe Biden's reelection campaign.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller 's 2019 report found that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election "in sweeping and systematic fashion" with the goal of aiding former President Donald Trump , who is likely to once again be Biden's opponent in November.
What We Know
Tuesday's DOJ filing claims that Smirnov has had "contact with officials affiliated with Russian intelligence" that "are extensive and extremely recent," while he purportedly had planned to take part in additional meetings before being arrested.
During a recent meeting with the "high ranking" Russian intelligence official, read the filing, Smirnov also met with "the individual who controls groups that are engaged in overseas assassination efforts," who revealed at least one detail of a plan to interfere in this year's election.
According to the filing, Smirnov told the FBI handler that Russian intelligence was intercepting phone calls "placed by prominent U.S. persons" that could be used as "kompromat," or damaging information, ahead of the November election.
"Smirnov's efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues," the filing states. "The Court should consider this conduct as well when evaluating his personal history and characteristics."
"He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November," it continues. "In light of that fact there is a serious risk he will flee in order to avoid accountability for his actions."
Smirnov undercover name is Boris, Natasha should be around somewhere.
Russian involvement dates back to 2019 or earlier when Rudy Giuliani was their useful idiot on the "Biden scandal " topic.
Thanks to Chuck Grassley and the House Republicans for pushing the FBI to finally investigate him after yeas of ignoring the claim of a "trusted source" One can only wonder why the Biden DOJ had zero interest in investigating these particular claims. Must have a coincidence they implicated the Bidens. Without their prodding, the Biden DOJ would have happily ignored of all of this and let this Russian asset remain in good standing.
The right’s flagging effort to impeach President Joe Biden took another blow last week when the Justice Department said that Alexander Smirnov , an FBI informant, had made up his accusation that Biden and his son Hunter had each taken $5 million bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch, and charged him with lying to the bureau.
Smirnov ’s tale, chronicled in a much-ballyhooed FBI FD-1023 report released last year, was described by House Republicans as the “heart” of their case against the president. “The most corroborating evidence we have is the 1023 form from this highly credible confidential human source,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in a January interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Right-wing Fox propagandists like Hannity had relentlessly promoted the informant’s claims, touting his purported credibility while ignoring the flimsy, sensational nature of his Biden bribery allegations. But they aren’t responding to his arrest by leveling with their viewers or reflecting on why they were taken in by unverified claims that “proved” what they desperately wanted to believe. Here’s what they’re doing with the news instead.
1. Ignoring it
Fox provided a mere 31 minutes of coverage of Smirnov ’s indictment from Thursday through Monday. That total is noticeably scant given how loudly the network previously trumpeted the informant’s allegations; Fox mentioned “Biden in the context of ‘bribe’ or ‘bribery’ more than 2,600 times” in the year before his arrest, The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported.
Several shows that typically provide robust coverage of the Hunter Biden probe ignored it; Fox & Friends provided only a single headline read, while The Ingraham Angle did not address the story at all (the latter featured interviews with a “body-language expert” as well as purported comedian Jimmy Failla on Thursday).
2. Claiming this actually makes Republicans look good
Hannity has been pilloried by the press for his credulous treatment of the informant’s claims; he promoted them on his Fox show in at least 85 segments last year, touting them as evidence of “public corruption” and “bribery.”
When the host finally addressed the informant’s arrest on Friday, rather than acknowledging that he had served as the willing tool of the Republican politicians who sought to inject the informant’s story into the public discourse, Hannity claimed that the new developments actually make those Republicans look good.
The Fox host acknowledged that he had “talked a lot about” the 1023, but presented it as “very damning, but a very, very small part of what is the large body of evidence in the Biden impeachment inquiry.” After rattling off a string of falsehoods familiar to his show’s regular viewers but inscrutable to normal people, Hannity claimed that Smirnov ’s arrest “raises a lot of questions” — but for the FBI, not Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who released the 1023 form, or right-wing media figures like himself who promoted it.
“When presented with information from a source that the agency so trusted for what, now 14 years, the FBI, as exposed by Sen. Grassley, they sat on that 1023 document and they did so for years,” Hannity claimed. “He was still working for the FBI and without any performance of any due diligence, they never looked into it.”
“So it's clear that only after Sen. Grassley made the 1023 public that the FBI then investigate the allegations of the document,” he added.
Hannity was somewhat more candid on his radio show Friday. “I'm mad that the FBI informant, the 1023 form in this case, that now this guy has been charged,” he said. “It appears that Alexander Smirnov was not to be trusted.”
“I guess I was stupid,” he concluded.
3. Layering on more conspiracy theories
The right-wing media have spent the last several years constructing a ludicrous, overarching conspiracy theory that federal law enforcement agencies are left-wing institutions which persecute conservatives. Some of Fox’s biggest conspiracy theorists are leaning on that to explain Smirnov ’s arrest, alleging that the informant’s story is true and he’s only being charged with a crime because the deep state is trying to help Biden.
Prime-time host Jesse Watters — who has promoted a lengthy list of conspiracy theories , including spreading doubt about the brutal assault of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband during a home invasion — claimed on Friday that Smirnov had been arrested because “he was too credible.” He attributed the charges to the president directly, alleging that “this is the second informant Biden has arrested for blowing the whistle about his bribes” (it is true that this is the second indictment of a supposed “whistleblower” whose unverified, dramatic claims were previously touted by Republicans and right-wing media).
Watters went on to claim that “everyone who blows the whistle on the Biden syndicate or is connected to it has been arrested.” He then brought on former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan, who claimed that the Bidens “took out a hit on this informant, Smirnov . They have now disabled him, and now the public is going to believe, well, this guy is a liar.”
Maria Bartiromo, whose treatment of purported election fraud during the 2020 election helped put Fox on the hook for a record defamation settlement, offered a similar reaction to Smirnov ’s indictment on her Fox Business show on Friday.
4. Diverting viewers to a different, similarly dubious Biden scandal
Some Fox hosts are following the right's typical cycle by moving on to a new MacGuffin after the failure of the old one.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade, for instance, presented Smirnov ’s arrest as part of a “rollercoaster week” for “the Biden family business drama.” He briefly noted that Smirnov had been charged with fabricating the Biden bribery story, adding that it “turns out not to be true, but keep in mind that is an FBI informant, nothing to do with Republicans.”
Having relieved Republicans and their media allies of any responsibility for endlessly promoting Smirnov ’s tale, Kilmeade moved on to the new shiny object: the deposition of Tony Bobulinski, a disgruntled former business partner of Hunter Biden.
“He knows it all,” Kilmeade raved. “He testified that he has got receipts. He's got emails. He has got text messages showing that this business existed and thrived.”
“I cannot wait to see this publicly,” he concluded. “I can't wait to read the transcripts. That's all coming your way, he is going to testify.”
Sure, Bobulinski told his story on Fox’s own airwaves nearly four years ago and it dissolved under scrutiny. But this time … this time is going to be different.
It's very predictable how the left has turned a guy no one has ever heard of into the supposed "star" witness once he was exposed for lying. His only relevance (such that it was) was as a source whose allegations the Biden DOJ refused to investigate for years (until pressured by Republicans). Having never heard of him, I looked back into the archives of this site and couldn't find a single article seeded about him. He was a blip on no one's rader before he was arrested.
I'm sure that what undercover gossip Russians do, they stay undercover, you know all that secret stuff that Jim Jordan is adept at.
It seems that he did his job well since none of your resident spies/lawyers ever heard of him.
In a sample of a few hundred members, really? Thats some funky radar.
What is predictable is that the right is dreaming up new conspiracy theories about all this as we speak.
Well, does this mean no further talk of impeaching President Biden (in time for the 2024 election)?
No, I believe there's a picture of him coming out soon, while driving the Vet that proves he's a Scranton nose picker. /S
Since when do leftists give a shit about taking disinformation from Russian spies?
It sure as shit wasn't during the whole Russian collusion hoax or the subsequent trial.
A leftist judge and TDS driven leftist jury let him off the hook.
I really don't want to hear about 1 damn witness that the FBI/Weiss failed to vet for 3 damn years. Maybe if the DOJ/FBI would have done their damn jobs instead of concentrating on Jan 6th rioters and parents who gave a crap about what their children are taught in school- things like this wouldn't happen. And the whole Russian collusion hoax wouldn't have occurred.
The Russians have been trying to help Trump since 2015-2016
Of course they have, that is obviously why they worked with the Hillary campaign to develop the Steele Dossier.
Surely the indictments for Epstein’s clients will be coming down any day now. Right?