Biden Impeachment: The Star Witness Lied. Who Would’ve Thought?

We can’t help but wonder if the Republicans who live to serve Donald Trump, like the ones in the United States House of Representatives, are ever tired of sprinting head first into brick walls. We recently discovered that one of the elements in the House impeachment inquiry, meaning the source of the biggest allegations against Biden, didn’t have any case.

To get into much-needed details, the source’s name is Alexander Smirnov, a 43-year-old FBI informant. For those of you who are not familiar with the right wing’s expanded Hunter Biden universe, Sminorv was the source at the heart of a specific FBI document, known as an FD-1023, that Fox News and congressional Republicans declared was proof-positive that Biden and his son were deeply embedded in a Ukrainian bribery scheme as Biden was still vice president.

The Biden impeachment bombshell that didn’t exist

With the initial release of the “bombshell” FBI document, MAGA-ville had quite a reaction. And when I say huge reaction, I mean it. As Republican Elise Stefanik said to Fox News, “This is the biggest political corruption scandal, not only in my lifetime but also in the past 100 years.”

Sure. In 2020, right after Biden became a presidential candidate, the informant decided to tell his FBI handler quite an elaborate story. He alleged that in 2015 and 2016, he met with executives from the Ukrainian energy company Hunter Biden was collaborating with, Burisma, and they declared they had $5 million in bribes paid to the younger Biden and then-Vice President Biden.

These (now obviously made-up) bribes were to get the elder Biden to deal with a Ukrainian prosecutor or similar nonsense. As it turns out, it was all a bunch of nonsense, which rational people who read things knew from the start. There was virtually no evidence to back up the informant’s claims. And if there were any, Trump’s dog would’ve been on it like a bear on a highway honey spill.

Allegations underpinning the GOP impeachment inquiry disappeared.

According to the latest indictment, “the events the defendant first reported to the handler in June 2020 were nothing but fabrications,” and Smirnov’s earliest contact with Burisma executives was in 2017, right after Biden had left his office.

As it turns out, Smirnov didn’t like Biden, and he constantly slammed him in messages to his handler. But as for the indictment, the defendant seemed to have transformed his routine and extraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 into bribery allegations against Public Official 1.

This comes after he expressed bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy. You guessed right, the public official in question being none other than POTUS.

I guess the “Biden crime family” lore is over now.

It’s worth examining some of the other excited Republican reactions to what we can now affirm are nothing but debunked claims. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana posted on social media that Biden’s family is the most corrupt family that ever lived in the White House and that he should be immediately impeached.

Who else? Oh, yes. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene questioned whether or not this is the main reason why Biden decided to involve America in the war in Ukraine. She also called Biden a criminal and a compromised politician. Last but not least, Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky added that the Biden family corruption saga continues.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity looks quite silly now.

The good old Sean Hannity went on Fox News, right on the night when the FD-1023 document was released, stating that Biden is “compromised” and has been “rather accused of public corruption on a scale the country has never seen before.” Media Matters for America also reported that Hannity did 85 segments on his show in 2023, all centered around similar allegations.

Things don’t work out for the House GOP’s impeachment mega-plans.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has already tripped time and time again over his lumpish attempt to impeach Biden. Star witness after star witness ended up under oath, stating the opposite of what Republicans wanted them to say.

For example, let’s take the most recent testimony reported by The Washington Post from Eric Schwerin, a former business associate of Hunter Biden: “I’m not completely aware of any financial transactions or compensation that Vice President Biden might have received related to business conducted by any of the family members or their associates, nor any other involvement by him in their businesses.”

Thursday’s indictment of the GOP’s lynchpin source, which also came via the special counsel who is investigating and also charged Hunter Biden, would also be the end of Comer and the Keystone-Kop Republicans’ impeachment crusade.

What will Hunter Biden do?

For many months, Hunter Biden declared he would only testify before Congress in front of the public. However, now Hunter Biden will go behind closed doors to face his Republican detractors on Capitol Hill for a deposition.

After many months of public spinning, political stunts, the threat of criminal contempt, and hardball negotiations that ended in two key concessions from Republicans, the deposition won’t be filmed.

Moreover, the transcript will be released rapidly to the public. Hunter Biden’s appearance will also represent the most significant testimony up to this day for two congressional committees assigned to lead the impeachment inquiry into POTUS, with a focus on a probe revolving around Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.

But as mentioned above, a key allegation that basically launched the impeachment inquiry has been fully discredited.

Russian intelligence is slightly involved.

Prosecutors also declared in their filing that Smirnov is actively coming up with new lies that might impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials. U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Albregts discovered that the government failed to make the case that Smirnov might have to be detained until trial and ordered him to be released under conditions that include GPS monitoring.

Smirnov was arrested last week in Las Vegas after returning from an international flight. He is facing two counts in connection with the lies he told his FBI handler. His defense attorneys state that he is an American citizen who also has an Israeli passport.

Smirnov, according to prosecutors with special counsel David Weiss’s office, showed false derogatory information to the FBI about the Biden family, including false allegations that officials with Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company Hunter Biden worked for, paid the Bidens $5 million each, and it would take investigations for 10 years to track down the fake payments.

Increasing pressure to let it go

A Democratic-aligned outside group started to apply pressure on House Republicans to drop the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The Congressional Integrity Project, or CIP, launched in 2020, and calls out the Republican party for its decision to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the basis of “zero evidence”. According to them, MAGA House Republicans keep seeking new lows. “They (Republicans) continue to try and impeach the President on outright lies from convicted felons and Russian assets.”

If you’re curious to know more about what’s been happening in the American politics for the past 10 years, we recommend you read this book written by William T. Bianco “American Politics Today“.

You might want to read other articles on similar topics, and if that’s so, make sure you give this one a try: Beyond the Spotlight: 7 Intriguing Facts About the Trump’s Siblings