Now we know what a real Russia hoax looks like: much like House Republicans' faltering attempt to impeach President Biden.
The Republican Party's current doomed misadventure was seriously undermined in federal court last month.
opinion columnist
Robin Abcarian
Republicans thought they had smoking gun: the claim by a longtime reliable FBI informant that Biden and his son Hunter had secretly accepted millions of dollars from the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma. Unfortunately for Planet MAGA, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, impeachment resolution author Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and the entire list of Fox News hosts, who have been foaming at the mouth over this story: it was all supposedly a lie.
The smoking gun is turning out to be an exploding cigar. And the informant? After all, it is not so reliable.
Last month, a federal grand jury indicted Alexander Smirnov, 43, for lying when he told the FBI that the Bidens had received $5 million each from Burisma. Not only that, according to special counsel Jack Weiss, who is overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden's finances, Smirnov was likely trained to create the story by agents associated with Russian intelligence in an effort to harm President Biden as he faces the re-election, most likely against Putin Apologist, former President Trump.
Wow, that Vladimir Putin just can't stay out of the US presidential election.
On Wednesday, Weiss filed a request asking the federal judge overseeing Smirnov's case to revoke bail, alleging that Smirnov “is actively peddling new lies that could affect the U.S. election after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.” . Smirnov needs to be confined, Weiss said, because he has the financial means and connections to flee the country. On Thursday, Smirnov was arrested again in Las Vegas, where he lives.
Unfortunately, Republicans can't seem to accept the implosion of their impeachment effort.
“It doesn't change the fundamental facts,” Jordan insisted to reporters Wednesday in an exchange posted by Forbes on YouTube.
“He does Change the facts,” a journalist intervened off camera, “because they are no longer facts, because they are not true.”
How do we get here?
In June 2020, Smirnov, a dual citizen of Israel and the United States, passed unverified information to his FBI handler. He said he met with Burisma executives in 2015 and 2016, and they told him about his payments to the Bidens. At the time, Burisma was the subject of a criminal investigation by corrupt Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was later fired. Smirnov said he was told that Hunter Biden would “take care of all those issues” (Burisma's vulnerabilities) “through his father.”
Smirnov also said he was told the payments would be so difficult to trace that it would take a decade to discover where the money had gone.
MAGA Republicans learned of the allegations, which were filed on an FBI form known as a 1023, a raw account of conversations between Smirnov and his contact at the FBI, with whom he had spoken almost daily for 10 years, hence the FBI's belief that it was dealing with a credible source.
You can imagine the joy of the Republican Party. They were so excited that they published the document unedited and unverified.
However, the FBI later said that Smirnov had lied about being in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016. According to the indictment, he had not had any contact with Burisma executives until 2017, long after Biden left office, and, in In any case, in this case, his dealings with Burisma were “routine and extraordinary.”
Really, that should be it, from an impeachment standpoint.
“I think it's time for Chairman Comer and the Republicans to raise the tent on this circus show,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the Oversight Committee. “At this point, it's really over.”
The tenacity and self-deception of the MAGA elect is surpassed only by Trump himself.
Like Trump, they are angry. Like Trump, they seek revenge: for the two impeachments against Trump and for the 91 felony charges the former president faces. They're angry that their idol may be held accountable for allegedly trying to steal the 2020 presidential election in Washington, D.C. and Georgia, for allegedly removing classified documents and hiding them at Mar-a-Lago, and for allegedly paying hush money to a star. for not. Like Trump, they are furious about the $355 million judgment against them for lying to lenders and New York tax officials about the value of their assets. And let's not even talk about the $83 million he owes E. Jean Carroll after sticking his fingers in her vagina and calling her a liar when she spoke out about his assault.
I don't think MAGA Republicans put it this way, but they are desperate for some way to persuade Americans that Joe Biden is just as corrupt as Donald Trump.
They can't, of course.
And so, like the dismembered Black Knight in that iconic fight scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” they comically cling to their mortally wounded impeachment plan, proclaiming, “It's just a scratch!”
