The Post said Smirnov, who has not yet entered a plea, “made false statements and made false statements” in an attempt to implicate Biden in corruption related to his son Hunter Biden’s involvement in the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. He is accused of “creating a fictitious record of.” . The article states, “The charges are against conservatives, particularly Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, who promoted Mr. Smirnov’s claims, as well as Mr. Smirnov and other Republicans. This amounts to severe criticism.” Tried to build a corruption case against the president and his family. ”
Even worse, the Post later reported that “Mr. Smirnov’s indictment and detention memos suggest that the allegations are not only false, but likely a Russian-inspired smear.” .
In the aftermath of the indictment, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) declared: He was the one who claimed that Burisma had donated $5 million to Joe Biden, but that was just made up. On that foundation an entire tower on the sand was built, but it all collapsed. ”
“There is no need to even rely on Mr. Smirnov’s own words, because there are nearly a dozen witnesses who completely deny and refute these important allegations,” Raskin added.
Now Republicans are pretending that Mr. Smirnov wasn’t that important after all. They vow to carry on with this Cow and Bull mission that was never undertaken. Not only did multiple witnesses testify that Biden was not involved in his son’s business dealings, but previous allegations that Biden acted on his son’s behalf had already been thoroughly denied. .
The current House fiasco overlaps with the Russian disinformation project described by national security experts Ryan Goodman and Asha Rangappa on the website Just Security in 2020. The plan persuaded Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa) to support it. Biden, as Vice President, tried to stop the Burisma investigation on behalf of his son, a now discredited scenario. (Also added another bogus Ukrainian election interference claim.)
And let’s not forget that Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III found that Russia interfered “totally and systematically” in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump.
This revelation about Smirnov does not simply mean the end of a comically incompetent impeachment process. It should raise questions about the recklessness of Republicans in promoting claims they know are clearly unreliable.
At the very least, it’s clear that House Republicans had reason to be skeptical and not accept Smirnov’s claims. FBI briefings “warned lawmakers that the document known as 1023 containing Mr. Smirnov’s allegations against the Bidens also contained raw, uncorroborated information that should not be made public,” CNN reported Wednesday. Reported. Even if Republicans didn’t know that Mr. Smirnov might have ties to Russian intelligence, they certainly knew that the basis for making outlandish claims about Mr. Biden was extremely shaky.
Appearing on CNN, Representative Ken Buck (R-Colorado) said: It has been cautioned that the reliability of this statement is unknown. ”
Asked directly whether Republican Rep. Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) were intentionally advancing supposedly unsubstantiated claims, Mr. Buck said, “That seems to be the case.” Indeed, other than the statement itself, there was no evidence that it was reliable. He added: “In his 25 years as a prosecutor…he has never gone public until he can prove the reliability of his statements.”
It’s bad enough that Republicans were simply reckless in trying to smear the president. It would be very surprising if they learned that this is another Russian influence project. “The Department of Justice must investigate whether and when Grassley, Comer, and Jordan knew that Smirnov was spreading Russian disinformation.” Congressman Dan Goldman (D.N.Y.) warned. At a press conference Thursday, Mr. Goldman said of his impeachment efforts: To the extent that they continue to promote it, they are currently doing so by drawing on the knowledge assets of Russian intelligence. ” He emphasized that: “It’s one thing to lead an investigation that finds no evidence to support baseless conclusions. It’s quite another when you’re acting as an agent of Vladimir Putin.”
Republicans have built their entire oversight effort around eradicating the “weaponization of government” as a means to accuse Democrats of wrongdoing. Let’s talk about projection. As Rangappa, a former FBI agent, told me, “Mr. Kamel’s impeachment inquiry appears to be a real ‘weaponization committee,’ weaponized by Russia.”
Republican affinity across multiple elections Due to a Russian-backed conspiracy You need to ensure wall-to-wall coverage. (Let’s not forget Russia’s efforts to cooperate with the Trump campaign and sabotage Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016, detailed in the Mueller report.) Responsible media outlets are calling on House Republicans to help Ukraine pressure to justify its refusal to vote and its habit of promoting Russian conspiracy theories. .
In other words, President Trump (with the support of House Republicans) wants to block aid to Ukraine and is inviting President Vladimir Putin to invade NATO countries with a military budget that Trump deems insufficient. . He is already serving as an essential aid in Putin’s attack on democracy and international order. No wonder Russia appears ready to go all out again to back Trump.