In a development that should upend MAGA Republican efforts to smear President Biden and his son Hunter's alleged business dealings with a Ukrainian power company, David Weiss, the Special Counsel who previously charged Hunter Biden with other offenses, has charged an FBI informant with lying about the Bidens' business dealings. From the Washington Post:
"The indictment returned by a grand jury in Los Angeles accuses Alexander Smirnov of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. The charges amount to a stark rebuke of conservatives, particularly Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, who touted Smirnov’s claims as he and other Republican lawmakers tried to build a corruption case against the president and his family.
Smirnov, 43, is described in charging documents as a former confidential human source for the FBI who gave agents false information in 2020 about a prominent political figure and his son. The description of the two individuals matches that of Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and a person familiar with the matter said those are the individuals about whom Smirnov lied." (our emphasis)
In summary, the charges against Smirnov state that he lied when he said there were phone calls with the energy company Burisma that claim that they hired Hunter Biden as a board member to gain influence over his then-Vice President father. More from the report:
"Thursday’s indictment implicitly argues that some of the most sensational charges Republicans have sought to level against the president and his son were based on lies.
Smirnov, according to the indictment, 'transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy.'
Authorities allege that Smirnov, in talking to his FBI handler, repeatedly expressed dislike for Joe Biden, and at one point texted the agent that Biden was 'going to jail.' [snip]
U.S. authorities said that when agents questioned Smirnov again in 2023, he repeated some past false claims, changed other parts of his story and suggested new falsehoods after claiming to have met with Russian officials." (our emphasis)
This has all the earmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign to bring the Bidens down and to support the Malignant Loser, with the eager cooperation and probable collusion of MAGA cult members on Capitol Hill and elsewhere (disgraced Rudy "Toot Toot" Giuliani perhaps?). Hopefully as Smirnov's case progresses, we'll hear more about the circumstances.
