Informant charged with lying about Joe and Hunter Biden’s ties to Burisma

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• Geoff Bennett:

  The special counsel in the Hunter-Biden investigation has charged a one-time informant with lying about President Biden and his son.

  Alexander Smirnov is accused of falsely claiming that the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma paid the Bidens $5 million apiece back in 2015 and 2016.

  Laura Barron-Lopez is here to explain the charges and how they undercut a key part of the House Republican impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

  So, Laura, what is the DOJ alleging?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So the Justice Department special counsel, David Weiss, has charged Alexander Smirnov with two counts, essentially alleging that he has made false statements to a government agent. That's count one.

  Count two, a falsification of records in a federal investigation. And in this indictment, the DOJ is saying that the defendant's story to the FBI — this is in the document itself — that the defendant's story to the FBI was a fabrication, an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts that had actually occurred.

  But, at a later date, then he claimed, and for the purpose of pitching Burisma on the defendant's services and products, not for the discussing bribes to Public Official 1 when he was in office, talking about President Biden there, but essentially all of the stories, everything that he had detailed to the FBI was a fabrication.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And these allegations had become a flash point in large part because you had people like the House Oversight Committee chairman, James Comer, other House Republicans, saying that these allegations flat-out proved that President Biden was guilty of bribery.

  So what does all of this now mean for that House impeachment inquiry against President Biden?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  That's exactly right, Geoff.

  Oversight Chairman James Comer, in addition to Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, as well as Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, repeatedly were trying to get a hold of this information that the FBI had from Smirnov, the allegations that he was making.

  Just last summer. Comer was calling this informant, Alexander Smirnov, a trusted and highly credible informant who had been used by the FBI for decades. So, this was a key, central basis of the Republicans', the House Republicans' entire impeachment inquiry into President Biden, what they said was the justification for launching that impeachment inquiry.

  And their response to this indictment is that they said that they were essentially misled by the FBI, that the FBI had had this source for years, and that they were simply just getting their information from this document that the FBI had.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And the FBI, as I understand it, is now using memos that congressional Republicans released as part of their indictment against Alexander Smirnov.

  So what do you see as the other potential political fallout here?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Look, Democrats are seizing on this, essentially saying that the entire basis for the House Republican impeachment inquiry into President Biden is on shaky ground, they have no evidence whatsoever, because one of their biggest pieces that they said was evidence of a bribery scheme is now being called into severe question by the Justice Department, saying that it was all a lie.

  Now, this also comes, Geoff, after witness after witness, including some of Hunter Biden's business associates, have testified — have been deposed by the Oversight Committee and by the committee overseeing this, and have essentially said that there is no evidence that President Biden was involved in any of Hunter Biden's business dealings.

  And this also comes, Geoff, a few weeks before Hunter Biden is set to testify to the committee.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Laura Barron-Lopez, thanks so much for getting up to speed on all this late-breaking news.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Thank you.