Republicans Are Scrambling to Salvage Their Doomed Biden Impeachment Push

Pay no attention to the discredited informant facing prison time.

GOP officials were scrambling Wednesday after Alexander Smirnov, a key witness in the impeachment proceedings against President Biden, was accused of being informed by Russian intelligence.

Smirnov was arrested last Thursday after Special Counsel David Weiss charged him on suspicion of providing the FBI with fraudulent information. Smirnov, an FBI informant for over a decade, was further discredited after a DOJ report Tuesday indicated he was not only lying to the FBI about Biden, but had “contacts with multiple foreign intelligence agencies.”

Smirnov had been identified as the informant documented in a FD-1023 form filed in June 2020 in which he alleged Biden’s family was paid two $5 million bribes by Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company which had the president’s son Hunter Biden on the board of directors. Republicans had long been citing the information Smirnov provided as a basis for their push to impeach Biden.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one of the driving forces behind the Biden impeachment inquiry, was questioned about the revelations relating to the star witness Wednesday. Despite the bombshell allegations, Jordan primarily stuck to talking points about the impeachment, such as Hunter Biden’s placement on the board of Burisma. “When Christopher Steele lied to the FBI about President Trump, he gets paid more; when Smirnov lies to the FBI about President Biden, he gets indicted, go figure,” Jordan told reporters Wednesday, referring to the Steele dossier. “It doesn’t change the fundamental facts.”

CNN reporter Manu Raju was among those to push back against Jordan’s defense, pointing out that the “facts” that Republicans have been presenting to the public are “not true.”

Smirnov was arrested at an airport in Las Vegas last Thursday, but has since been released from custody pending trial. Weiss asked a federal judge on Wednesday to reconsider Smirnov’s release in the wake of the ongoing DOJ investigation, according to New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush.

In another instance of damage control, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), also a member of the House Oversight Committee, downplayed Smirnov’s arrest during an appearance on Fox Business. “Well the FD-1023 is in the periphery, it’s ancillary from the topic,” Fallon said Wednesday. “The 1023 was only ever as good as the informant.”

Jordan, meanwhile, called the 1023 form “the most corroborating evidence we have” in a previous CNN interview, attributing the claim to U.S. attorney Scott Brady.

Fallon himself had previously said on X, formerly Twitter, that the 1023 form was “damning evidence that Biden is compromised.”

Despite Republicans’ public statements that the impeachment investigation remains unphased, their actions behind closed doors show a different reaction to the news.

In one instance, a paragraph referencing Smirnov and the 1023 form was deleted from a letter sent to Amos Hochstein, a former State Department worker, requesting to interview him as a potential witness in the impeachment inquiry.

According to copies of the letter reviewed by Huffpost, the interview request was attributed to Jordan and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), and had previously included a paragraph citing Smirnov and his intelligence before a second copy was sent later without the aforementioned references.

President Biden’s younger brother James Biden testified Wednesday about his business ventures, telling Congress “Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities.” Hunter Biden, the president’s son, is also scheduled to sit for a deposition in the inquiry next week.

In the meantime, Rep.Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Wednesday that “the impeachment investigation essentially ended yesterday — in substance if not in form — with the explosive revelation that Mr. Smirnov’s allegations about Ukrainian Burisma payments to Joe Biden were concocted along with Russian intelligence agents.”

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