James Comer duped by Alexander Smirnov

[Larniavc]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/politics/alexander-smirnov-re-arrested/index.html

With Smirnov being an obvious Russian operative (although to to be fair to him he also betrayed Russia in the past) can the GOP be trusted to have America's safety a higher priority than their own personal political interests?

 

[Vambram]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/politics/alexander-smirnov-re-arrested/index.html

With Smirnov being an obvious Russian operative (although to to be fair to him he also betrayed Russia in the past) can the GOP be trusted to have America's safety a higher priority than their own personal political interests?

The FBI flubbed this one with Smirnov. It was the FBI who had labeled Smirnov for years as a trusted source.

 

[Larniavc]

The FBI flubbed this one with Smirnov. It was the FBI who had labeled Smirnov for years as a trusted source.

And who uncritically lapped int all up with yummy right wing spoons?

 

[Vambram]

And who uncritically lapped int all up with yummy right wing spoons?

Should we have been suspicious of what the FBI called a trusted source?

 

[childeye 2]

Should we have been suspicious of what the FBI called a trusted source?

Raw intelligence from any source should always be vetted.

 

[Vambram]

https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/james-comer-joe-biden-impeachment/2024/02/22/id/1154652/

 

[Larniavc]

Should we have been suspicious of what the FBI called a trusted source?

No we should have suspicious of right wing mendacity.

 

[childeye 2]

The FBI flubbed this one with Smirnov. It was the FBI who had labeled Smirnov for years as a trusted source.

I seriously doubt that narrative is even half true. More likely the FBI found the source to have been credible on some occasions. That doesn't make the source trustworthy. The very reason why the FBI resisted turning over an FD 1023 form to the House Republicans is because it is unvetted and subsequently not reliable. It was these House Republicans who made the FBI to look like they were hiding something and who also portrayed this now revealed Russian intelligence asset as the source of a "whistleblower", which necessarily means they intentionally were peddling propaganda.

 

[7thKeeper]

Should we have been suspicious of what the FBI called a trusted source?

Well, as we've now learned, when Smirnov told his info on Biden, Hunter and Burisma, Republicans and Democrats were informed in the closed session that his information was unverified and that the FBI (iirc the correct organisation) said the information couldn't be trusted. Comer was quite happy still to claim it was verified and solid, despite this information having been said.

 

[durangodawood]

Well, as we've now learned, when Smirnov told his info on Biden, Hunter and Burisma, Republicans and Democrats were informed in the closed session that his information was unverified and that the FBI (iirc the correct organisation) said the information couldn't be trusted. Comer was quite happy still to claim it was verified and solid, despite this information having been said.

When someone tells you what you want to hear, you dont go questioning their honesty or motives. You run with it!

 

[DaisyDay]

The FBI flubbed this one with Smirnov. It was the FBI who had labeled Smirnov for years as a trusted source.

The fact that they were using the FD1023, which is for unverified information, without even checking the stated timeline is gross negligence at best. Also consider that the FBI tried not to give the form to the GOP committees.

NYT: The Informant Turned Defendant Who Took Aim at the Bidens

How Alexander Smirnov managed to convince business partners, law enforcement agencies and politicians he had something of value to offer remains an enigma.
In 2020, Mr. Smirnov told his F.B.I. handler what prosecutors say was a brazen lie — that the oligarch owner of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had arranged to pay $5 million bribes to both President Biden and his son Hunter. The explosive claim was leaked to Republicans, who made Mr. Smirnov’s allegations a centerpiece of their now-stalled effort to impeach President Biden, apparently without verifying the allegation.

In court filings, prosecutors working for David C. Weiss, the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden, described Mr. Smirnov as a serial liar who could not even be trusted to describe honestly his own occupation or account for his finances.

Mr. Smirnov, a dual citizen of Israel and the United States, moved into a three-bedroom, three-bath condo off the Las Vegas Strip that his longtime girlfriend bought two years ago for $980,000. There is no public record of prior criminal charges against him in the United States.​

The FBI used him for FBI purposes. That wouldn't make him reliable as a court witness.

 

[essentialsaltes]

When someone tells you what you want to hear, you dont go questioning their honesty or motives. You run with it!

QFT. There was no 'duping' involved (per the OP title).

 

[Vambram]

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who is leading the impeachment inquiry, told Newsmax on Thursday that Smirnov was a small piece of the larger investigation into alleged influence peddling and criminal activity by Biden and members of his family.

"He's a micropiece" of the whole puzzle, Comer told "Rob Schmitt Tonight," adding the bank records he obtained during the investigation tell the whole story, and bank records "don't lie."

Biden's DOJ alleged Smirnov lied on an FBI FD-1023 form that claimed the president and his son Hunter Biden each received $5 million from Burisma Holdings Ltd., on whose board Hunter Biden served, to get Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company. Shokin ultimately was fired.

"You investigate every lead you get," said Comer, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. "We got a tip from [Sen.] Chuck Grassley that there was a form the FBI had that they had never investigated that alleged Joe Biden took a bribe. What was interesting to me when I read the 1023 [form] was the fact that even years before [Hunter Biden's] laptop was ever discovered, the FBI form referred to Joe Biden as the 'big guy.' And it said that the alleged bribe went through various bank accounts, and it would have taken 10 years for investigators to find out.

"That was consistent with what I already found out with bank records, which are the basis of our investigation. Our evidence revolves around bank records that I subpoenaed and have in hand that show the Bidens took millions and millions of dollars from our enemies around the world. This tip from Grassley was consistent with that."

Comer said Smirnov's allegations were not going to be in the final impeachment inquiry report because he didn't know the source's identity. He said all he knew is what FBI Director Chistopher Wray told him, Grassley, and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio — and what his committee learned in an FBI briefing: that the informant was one of their highest-paid, most trusted in the entire bureau.

"This is a credible investigation that's based on bank records," Comer said. "The fact that the FBI arrested the informant who they told us was one of their highest-paid, most credible, that had been on the payroll with the FBI for over a decade doesn't change the fact that the Bidens took millions and millions of dollars from China while Joe Biden was vice president. They did the same thing in Romania while Joe Biden was vice president.

"Thank God I don't need the FBI in this investigation. They've obstructed the heck out of this investigation. But we have followed the bank records. Bank records don't lie. The Biden family has influenced with our enemies around the world to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, and I think every American will have a problem with that when they see the final report."

 

[o_mlly]

When someone tells you what you want to hear, you dont go questioning their honesty or motives. You run with it!

Like Christopher Steele, for example?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Like Christopher Steele, for example?

Steele was tasked with pulling together opposition research and rumors about Trump, regardless of their credibility. Everybody knows this.

 

[JustOneWay]

Now it is the FBI's fault? OK

 

[durangodawood]

Like Christopher Steele, for example?

People used Steele to suggest avenues of inquiry. No one of consequence used it as witness testimony or anything of similar gravity..

 

[o_mlly]

Everybody knows this.

? They do now after $25.2 million spent on the Mueller report debunking the Steele dossier.

 

[o_mlly]

People used Steele to suggest avenues of inquiry. No one of consequence used it as witness testimony or anything of similar gravity..

Of course, just "avenues of inquiry".

 

[wing2000]

...in their haste to impeach Biden, Grassley, Comer and company fall for Russian lies....I mean seriously, the FBI warned them the information was uncorroborated. Rep Ken Buck, a former prosecutor, is calling out his colleagues for their foolishness.

At the center of it all was the unsubstantiated accusation that Mr. Biden had taken a $5 million bribe from the executive of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.

But what neither Mr. Grassley nor any of the other Republicans who amplified the claims said in their breathless statements was that F.B.I. officials had warned them repeatedly to be cautious about the accusation, because it was uncorroborated and its credibility unknown.

...

Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and chairman of the Oversight Committee, called the source of the allegation “highly credible,” while Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and the Judiciary Committee chairman, called the form the “most corroborating evidence we have.”

Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 3 House Republican who is one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal allies in that chamber, declared it “the biggest political corruption scandal, not only in my lifetime, but I would say the past 100 years.”

Republicans read it into the Congressional Record, included it as a “key” document on the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry website and even threatened to hold the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, in contempt when he resisted their calls to send them an unredacted copy of the form.
..

Mr. Buck, a former prosecutor for 25 years, said the F.B.I. had handled the allegation the way every professional law enforcement agency should.

“You don’t go running to the press every time a witness says something, because you don’t know what the reliability of that testimony is,” Mr. Buck said. “It was premature to go out and tout how significant this was without knowing the reliability of the testimony.”

Despite the bureau’s warnings, and the inability of Republican investigators to produce evidence to support the bribery claims, members of the party’s right wing amplified their attacks, linking it to their impeachment inquiry.

Mr. Comer even chastised reporters for calling the allegations “unverified” instead of reporting that the informant was “highly credible” after lawmakers were shown the form.

Ignoring Warnings, G.O.P. Trumpeted Now-Discredited Allegation Against Biden

Republicans in Congress built their impeachment case against President Biden around a bribery accusation that the F.B.I. had warned them was uncorroborated.

www.nytimes.com