One would expect such a dramatic development to derail the impeachment. That would betray a moving belief that the truth mattered at all. Republicans who once pushed the informant's claims shrug their shoulders and insist that impeachment proceedings will proceed based on other presumptions and assumptions, even though the two-seat Republican majority in the House of Representatives will almost certainly scuttle any vote , given the doubts. of some members.
This is not meant to downplay Russia's efforts to undermine democracy. Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, called it “sweeping and systematic.” But politicians from both parties have shown that they can go it alone when it comes to crafting conspiracies and spreading dysfunction. The House of Representatives is the best at this. The most shocking facts are not emerging from the shadows thanks to congressional investigations, but are being paraded into public thanks to the foolishness of Congress, the refusal of the Republicans in the House of Representatives to even vote on the bipartisan agreement of the Senate to tighten it. to promote border security and to assist Ukraine and Israel in their inability to agree on budget priorities as a government shutdown once again looms unpleasantly.
The informant, or disinformant, story has the familiar, miasmic qualities of other Trump-era scandals. It is said that no one urinated on anyone, but the story does involve vibrant characters, duplicitous dealings in European capitals, affectionate lines with FBI agents, investigations into investigations, ties to Ukraine, and ultimately benefits to Russia.
Before his arrest in mid-February, Alexander Smirnov, a dual American and Israeli citizen, had been hiding FBI information for 13 years. The agency trusted him enough to allow him to commit crimes as part of investigations, though it warned him not to lie, at least not to the FBI, according to the complaint. Mr. Smirnov, now 43, was in almost daily contact with his supervisor; he called the officer “bro”.
In 2013, Smirnov was struggling with $125,000 in credit card debt, according to the Los Angeles Times, but prosecutors say he now has access to $6 million even though he doesn't own a home or have a job, at least not in America. He has as many as nine guns in his home, prosecutors say. He has pleaded not guilty.
Here comes the complicated bit. Remember Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where Biden's son Hunter joined the board of directors while his father was vice president? In 2017, Mr. Smirnov told his supervisor that Hunter Biden was known to be on the board. Then, in 2020, when Mr. Biden was running for president against Donald Trump, Mr. Smirnov sent his handlers text messages “expressing bias” against Mr. Biden, according to the indictment. When he promised information that would incriminate the Bidens, the handler responded, “that would be a game changer.”
Meanwhile, the Attorney General under Trump had ordered Scott Brady, a US lawyer, in early 2020 to investigate suspicions of corruption in the Biden family, about which Trump had previously demanded that Ukraine launch an investigation, leading to the first impeachment of Trump. After Mr. Brady instructed the FBI to search the files for “Burisma,” the 2017 entry surfaced and the administrator contacted Mr. Smirnov. This time, Mr. Smirnov said Burisma's CEO had told him as early as 2015 that the company had paid bribes at $5 million each for the Biden men. The FBI recorded the new allegations on a “Form 1023.”
In 2023, Republican members of Congress got wind of the form and demanded it, took it down and publicized it after threatening the FBI director with contempt. Although the information was not confirmed, Nancy Mace, a congresswoman from South Carolina, stated at the first impeachment hearing in September that “we already know that the president took bribes from Burisma.” Jim Jordan of Ohio called the FBI document “the most corroborating evidence we have.” “, while New York's Elise Stefanik saw “the biggest political corruption scandal” of “the past 100 years.”
An imperfect spy
According to the indictment, Mr. Smirnov's claims failed to withstand any scrutiny. He did not meet with Burisma executives before 2017, and the meetings and phone calls he described never took place, the indictment said. When agents met with him in September, Mr. Smirnov, according to the indictment, changed his story and told new lies. He said that when Hunter Biden stayed at the Premier Palace hotel in Kiev, his calls may have been recorded by Russian intelligence. Yet Mr. Biden has never been to Ukraine. Prosecutors warned that Mr. Smirnov is “actively spreading new lies that could impact the U.S. election after a meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.” They successfully argued that he is a flight risk and should be held pending trial.
Not a single Republican who hyped Mr. Smirnov's accusations has expressed remorse, and the leader of the impeachment committee, James Comer, insists that his investigation, which has yet to find evidence of a crime by the president, “is not depends” on them. It would be reassuring to discover that Mr Putin is essentially responsible for all this nonsense. What seems more likely is that he has offered support to politicians who were already more than capable of squandering their opportunity to do anything good while in office.
Read more from Lexington, our columnist on American politics:
The shortcomings that China's chief ideologue discovered in America (February 22)
The enormous love of Donald Trump (February 16)
This isn't a story about Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl (February 8th)
Also: How the Lexington Column got his name
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Published: Apr 29, 2024 6:00 PM IST