The Republicans “Best” Witness Against Biden Was Just Indicted For Lying

Alexander Smirnov is (or at least was) a star witness in the Republican efforts to impeach Joe Biden. Smirnov, a former business partner with Hunter Biden, became a “confidential human source” for the FBI.

Smirnov is the guy who told FBI agents that Burisma officials admitted to him that they hired Hunter to protect protect the company, “through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” He told FBI agents that Burisma executives paid $5 million to Joe and Hunter Biden, when Joe Mr Biden was Vice President, to protect the company from investigations. Smirnov told the FBI he had a phone call with a Burisma executive, in which the executive claimed he’d been “forced” to pay alleged bribes to the Bidens.

Republicans pounced on it. Smirnov’s claims were memorialized by the FBI agents on a Form 1023, a common form used by FBI agents to summarize witness interviews, whether the information is accurate or not. Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley got the 1023 and leaked it to the press. House Committee Chairmen Jim Jordan and James Comer both publicly presented the claims made by Smirnov as true and proof that, as Vice President, Joe Biden had been financially bribed by a foreign power. Then Speaker McCarthy declared, “a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family.”

Alas, all the reliance on this “witness” blew up today. Today a grand jury indicted Alexander Smirnov on charges that he lied about the whole thing. You can read the grand jury indictment HERE.

When you read the indictment “Public Official 1” is then Vice President Joe Biden, and “Businessperson 1” is Hunter Biden.

The indictment does not mince words. It turns out that Smirnov, contrary to his representations to the FBI, had no contact with Burisma officials until 2017, after Biden left the Vice Presidency. The indictment states:

“In short, the Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy . . . 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 than he claimed and for the purpose of pitching Burisma on the Defendant’s services and products, not for discussing bribes to Public Official 1 when he was in office.”

It turns out that the President Biden committed no crimes. The crimes here were in the allegations made against Biden. Crimes Republicans participated in. This is the criminal garbage the Biden impeachment case is built on. Oh, and doesn’t it smack of, dare I say, “election interference”?

As interesting as the charge against this Republican backed criminal is who brought the charges. The prosecutor bringing the charge is against Smirnov is David Weiss, the same Special Counsel who brought charges against Hunter Biden for tax evasion and illegally owning a gun. He was appointed by Trump to be the United States Attorney for Delaware and tasked by Trump Attorney General Barr to investigate the Bidens. Tough to argue this is a Biden initiated political prosecution aimed at protecting the Bidens. But argue it they will. What else is left to them?

One final point. Republicans will undoubtedly argue the allegations against Smirnov are only that, and not proven. But here’s the thing. Many of the allegations are easy to prove (or disprove). For example, Smirnov claims he traveled to Vienna in late 2015 or early 2016 where he met with Burisma officials who told him about the bribery scheme. The indictment alleges he did not travel to Vienna in late 2015 or early 2016. Whether he did, or didn’t, is easy to prove, just look at his passport.

The ease in proving Smirnov a liar creates a strong incentive for him to cut a plea deal. In any such plea deal I am sure his cooperation would include explaining whether anyone put him up to this fabrication, and who.