After Alexander Smirnov indictment, what's next for impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden?

WASHINGTON – Republican investigators leading the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden were dealt a major blow on Thursday evening after a former FBI informant was indicted by Justice Department Special Counsel David Weiss for lying about Biden and his son, Hunter Biden’s involvement with a Ukrainian energy company.

The informant, Alexander Smirnov, has been touted by Republicans for months as a credible source that shows the president and his son were directly involved in corruption schemes. Smirnov’s arrest and charges that he fabricated his claims about the Biden family’s business dealings significantly undercut Republican allegations that the president was improperly involved with his son’s business interests.

But Republicans downplayed Smirnov’s indictment on Thursday night. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., one of the Republicans leading the inquiry, said in a statement that the probe “is not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023,” referring to the name of documents the FBI uses to document information from confidential human sources.

The inquiry instead, Comer contended, “is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings.”

The GOP-led inquiry into the president is broad in scope. Smirnov’s allegations about Joe and Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, is just one of several other allegations Republicans are chasing. But his claim – that Joe Biden as vice president fired a Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son who was serving on Burisma’s board – was a central piece of evidence the GOP has touted.

To date, House Republicans have also yet to produce evidence directly tying Joe Biden to any of his son’s foreign business ventures.

Regardless, Comer promised to “continue to follow the facts to propose legislation to reform federal ethics laws and to determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted.” Here’s what comes next.

What happened with Smirnov?

Smirnov is accused of lying to the FBI and saying that Ukrainian executives of Burisma told him in 2015 and 2016 that Hunter Biden was hired to the board to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”

Those executives, Smirnov alleged, also told him that they paid $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden to “take care of all those issues through his dad.”

Those statements supported allegations that Joe Biden, as vice president, helped oust a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to protect Hunter Biden. But according to the indictment, Smirnov was in contact with those executives at the end of the Obama-Biden administration and after Shokin was fired.

Shokin’s ouster was also motivated not because he was investigating Burisma and consequently, Hunter Biden, but because U.S. and European diplomats and officials were lobbying for his removal because he was not pursuing corruption cases after corrupt politicians.

What’s next for the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry?

House Republicans are still going full steam ahead over other allegations that the president financially benefitted from his son’s business affairs and have two massive testimonies scheduled in the coming weeks: James Biden, the president’s brother and Hunter Biden himself.

James Biden is slated to sit for a closed-door transcribed interview with investigators on Feb. 21. The investigating committees have zeroed in on James Biden’s business dealings and are interested in the extent to which, if any, the president was involved in any of them.

Lawmakers are likely to ask James Biden about a pair of checks he made to the president in 2017 in 2018 labeled on the memo line as a “loan repayment.” Bank records previously reviewed by USA TODAY suggest the checks were indeed repayments for loans the president previously made to his brother.

Hunter Biden, who is at the center of House Republicans’ allegations against the president, is then scheduled to testify behind closed-doors a week later on Feb. 28 after much back and forth between him and investigators. GOP lawmakers have repeatedly alleged Hunter Biden sold his last name as a form of "influence peddling” while Joe Biden served as vice president. Joe Biden, Republicans allege, was complicit in Hunter Biden’s schemes and directly benefitted from them.

Following his closed-door interview, Hunter Biden will then speak in a public hearing before the Oversight Committee.

Along with James and Hunter Biden’s testimony, the investigating committees have additional transcribed interviews in the coming weeks with other people associated with the Biden family as Republicans seek to close out their inquiry and decide whether to draft articles of impeachment against the president.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alex Smirnov indicted: House GOP Biden impeachment probe's next steps