After Indictment of FBI Informant, Biden Calls For An End To Impeachment Inquiry

Alexander Smirnov is the former FBI informant that made claims about Biden taking bribes from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.

This seemed like a loose end that had to be dealt with, so the DOJ thought it best to indict him.

On Thursday Smirnov appeared in court in Las Vegas on the grounds of making a false statement and a false record.

Biden and Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin then took this opportunity to call for an end to the impeachment inquiry.

BREAKING: Biden DOJ arrests former FBI informant who said Biden took bribes from Ukrainian energy company

Alexander Smirnov, 43, was arrested on Thursday at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.https://t.co/YHpXEWCqll

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 16, 2024

Fox News reports:

President Biden called for House Republicans to drop their impeachment inquiry against him, saying on Friday that it has been “an outrageous effort from the beginning.”

The president’s comments came after the indictment of FBI informant who alleged that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden had been paid millions of dollars in exchange for their help firing the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma Holdings.

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“He is lying, and it should be dropped,” Biden said after a reporter asked about the indicted FBI informant.

House Republicans told Fox News Digital that their impeachment inquiry has much more evidence that does not rely on the indicted FBI source.

Special Counsel David Weiss charged Alexander Smirnov, 43, with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record during FBI interviews.

According to the indictment, Smirnov gave “false derogatory information” to the FBI despite “repeated admonishments that he must provide truthful information and that he must not fabricate evidence.”

The indictment says that Smirnov had told an FBI agent in March 2017 that he had had a phone call with Burisma’s owner concerning the firm potentially acquiring a U.S. company and making an initial public offering (IPO) on a U.S.-based stock exchange.

In reporting this conversation to the FBI agent, Smirnov said that Hunter Biden was a board member of Burisma, though that was publicly known.

In June 2020, Smirnov is accused of having told the FBI, for the first time, about two meetings he had had four to five years earlier, in which executives associated with Burisma had supposedly admitted that they had hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”

During this meeting, the indictment alleges that Smirnov said the executives had paid $5 million to each of the Bidens while Joe Biden was still in office. The indictment alleges that Smirnov falsely claimed that the Bidens had been paid so that Hunter Biden, with his dad’s help, could take care of a criminal investigation being conducted by the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin, into Burisma.

The allegations were recorded on an FBI FD-1023 form, which is used by FBI agents to record unverified reporting from confidential human sources. The form is used to document information as told to an FBI agent, but recording that information does not validate or weigh it against other information known by the FBI.

The FD-1023 form containing the allegations last year became a key document in the House investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.

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The DOJ is bringing felony charges against the "credible" FBI informant who said Joe & Hunter Biden were involved in a $10m bribery scheme with Burisma. Everyone who blows the whistle on the Biden's seems to get locked up. pic.twitter.com/QwjjbPe09a

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) February 17, 2024

The Associated Press adds:

Prosecutors say Smirnov in fact had only routine business dealings with the company in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate.

Smirnov, 43, appeared in court in Las Vegas briefly Thursday after being charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. He did not enter a plea. The judge ordered the courtroom cleared after federal public defender Margaret Wightman Lambrose requested a closed hearing for arguments about sealing court documents. She declined to comment on the case.

The informant’s claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. An attorney for Hunter Biden, who is expected to give a deposition later this month, said the charges show the probe is “based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses.”

The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, called for an end to the Biden impeachment inquiry.

BREAKING: DOJ has charged the informant who provided derogatory informaton about Hunter and Joe Biden with "false statements" and obstruction. pic.twitter.com/7N2IC87E0g

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 15, 2024

Biden’s response to the informant being indicted:

BIDEN on the impeachment inquiry into his family's years of corruption: "It should be dropped and it's just been an outrageous effort!" pic.twitter.com/YVRH3nmsED

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 16, 2024