FBI Informant at Heart of GOP’s Biden Bribery Allegations Charged with Lying About Hunter and Joe Bidens’ Role in Ukraine Business.

[xser88]

Is this undercutting the GOP's impeachment inquiry?

The FBI source who claimed to have information regarding alleged bribes paid to President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, has been charged with fabricating the allegations during interviews with federal agents.

David Weiss, the special prosecutor and Trump appointee who is overseeing two federal cases against Hunter Biden, obtained a grand jury indictment in the Central District of California against Alexander Smirnov on charges that he made false statements to federal investigators during his time as a confidential human source for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the indictment, Mr Smirnov allegedly “provided false derogatory information” to agents about President Biden, who is described in the court documents as “Public Official 1, an elected official in the Obama-Biden Administration who left office in January 2017,” and Hunter Biden, who prosecutors describe as “Businessperson 1, the son of Public Official 1, in 2020, after Public Official 1 became a candidate for President of the United States of America”.

FBI ‘source’ who made bribery allegations against Biden charged with false statements

The false allegations have formed the backbone of a Republican impeachment probe into President Biden

www.the-independent.com

These false allegations have formed the backbone of a Republican impeachment probe into President Biden.
Are these allegations of the Informant lying a massive blow to House Republicans’ attempt to impeach Biden?

 

[Bradskii]

Colour me totally unsurprised. This from the link:

A spokesperson for Mr Comer and the House Oversight Committee’s Republican majority, Austin Hacker...claimed that the FBI had described the defendant as “credible and trusted”.

Yeah. Sure. Which is why they are charging him with making the whole thing up.

 

[SimplyMe]

It is also worth noting that the FBI dismissed the claims after investigating them and finding that the claims were not supported by evidence, such as how Smirnov's conversations and work with Burisma officials were only in 2017 and not when Smirnov claimed (that he originally was told of Joe protecting them in 2015 and/or 2016).

More interesting is, Smirnov knowing the FBI had found that he had not met with Burisma officials in the correct time period, claimed that he was told these things by Russians he spoke with.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Yeah. Sure. Which is why they are charging him with making the whole thing up.

Better than that. It is not 'they' [FBI] bringing charges, but David Weiss, the special prosecutor, originally appointed by Trump.

Is David Weiss prosecuting Smirnov for political reasons? Then maybe he's prosecuting Hunter Biden for political reasons.

Conspiracy theorists are left with that conundrum. Here in reality land, both prosecutions are perfectly understandable.

 

[KCfromNC]

Is this undercutting the GOP's impeachment inquiry?

Not really, it is no less credible now than it was before this guy was charged with lying about his testimony. I mean, there's no such thing as negative credibility, is there?

 

[A2SG]

Not really, it is no less credible now than it was before this guy was charged with lying about his testimony. I mean, there's no such thing as negative credibility, is there?

Not now, but the GOP sure seems intent on creating it.

-- A2SG, if only they put the same effort onto governing...

 

[Brihaha]

I would definitely say this undercuts republicans shambolic impeachment inquiry into President Biden. I find this indictment mildly amusing. Mostly due to the fact Senator Grassley released the unsubstantiated fd 2023 fbi form to the public in hasty political zeal to incriminate our democratic president. Mr Grassley is known for criticizing the release of raw intelligence to the public, before his tribal political instincts took control over his behavior. It seems highly disconcerting to see a lawmaker release uncorroborated raw intelligence without any details regarding its veracity, especially when doing so for obvious political purposes. Yet Mr Grassley's indiscreet disclosure has led to these charges against Smirnov lol. Truly poetic justice in my view.

 

[KCfromNC]

-- A2SG, if only they put the same effort onto governing...

Why would they bother if the marks aren't getting wise to the con?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Skimming through the indictment

The Defendant also knew the information he provided was used in criminal investigations because the Defendant participated in a number of operations where he was authorized to engage in criminal activity as part of an on-going criminal investigation.

As described in greater detail below, in March 2017, the Defendant reported to the Handler that he had had a phone call with the owner of Ukrainian industrial conglomerate Burisma Holdings, Limited (hereafter “Burisma Official 1”) concerning Burisma’s interest in acquiring a U.S. company and making an initial public offering (“IPO”) on a U.S.-based stock exchange. In reporting that conversation to the Handler, the Defendant also noted that Businessperson 1, Public Official 1’s son, was a member of Burisma’s Board, a fact that was publicly known.
[In 2017, the story was boring]

b. Three years later, in June 2020, the Defendant reported, for the first time, two meetings in 2015 and/or 2016, during the Obama- Biden Administration, in which he claimed executives associated with Burisma, including Burisma Official 1, admitted to him that they hired Businessperson 1 to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” and later that they had specifically paid $5 million each to Public Official 1 and Businessperson 1, when Public Official 1 was still in office
[In 2020, as Public Official #1 was running for president, the story got a lot more exciting.]

When he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023, the Defendant repeated some of his false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.

 

[Hans Blaster]

According to the indictment, Mr Smirnov allegedly “provided false derogatory information” to agents about President Biden, who is described in the court documents as “Public Official 1, an elected official in the Obama-Biden Administration who left office in January 2017,” and Hunter Biden, who prosecutors describe as “Businessperson 1, the son of Public Official 1, in 2020, after Public Official 1 became a candidate for President of the United States of America”.

That's hard to decode. /s

There are only two elected officials in a presidential administration -- President and Vice President, Obama wasn't running for president nor did he have a son.

This is the least hidden anonymous identifier in a DOJ charging document since in the Michael Cohen case "Individual-1" was described (for actions occurring in 2016) as a candidate for president that subsequently was elected.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Republican Ken Buck: Colleagues were warned informant’s Biden claims were not verified​

“We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness’s testimony. … We were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known,” Buck said on CNN’s “The Source.”

“And yet, people, my colleagues went out and talk to the public about how this was credible and how ... it proved President Biden’s — at the time Vice President Biden’s — complicity in receiving bribes,” he added.

 

[childeye 2]

Republican Ken Buck: Colleagues were warned informant’s Biden claims were not verified​

“We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness’s testimony. … We were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known,” Buck said on CNN’s “The Source.”

“And yet, people, my colleagues went out and talk to the public about how this was credible and how ... it proved President Biden’s — at the time Vice President Biden’s — complicity in receiving bribes,” he added.

A Russian intelligence asset manipulating the GOP. It's been happening since 2015.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Indicted ex-FBI informant’s lawyers may be trying to help him flee the US, judge says​

“It has come to this Court’s attention that counsel for defendant has sought an emergency hearing in the District of Nevada to arrange the release of Defendant Smirnov, likely to facilitate his absconding from the United States,” [Judge Otis] Wright wrote.

his lawyers wrote. “The suggestion that defense counsel is participating in an unlawful plot by advocating for release… is wrong.”

 

[rambot]

For a reference Republicans can understand, this investigation is like the Steele Dossier.

 

[variant]

Not really, it is no less credible now than it was before this guy was charged with lying about his testimony. I mean, there's no such thing as negative credibility, is there?

It generally looks worse when you're promoting propaganda that you should know is being fed to you through sources such as the spy networks of our nations enemies.

 

[KCfromNC]

It generally looks worse when you're promoting propaganda that you should know is being fed to you through sources such as the spy networks of our nations enemies.

If GOP leadership really cared how they looked they would have stopped doing so a few election cycles ago. So like I said, this looks par for the course for the modern GOP.

 

[essentialsaltes]

For a reference Republicans can understand, this investigation is like the Steele Dossier.

If the Steele Dossier had been compiled by the majority party in Congress using subpoena power.