Democrats have resuscitated claims that Republican lawmakers are colluding with Russia, this time in the GOP’s impeachment probe of President Biden.
Republicans reject the allegations, which are based on the arrest of Alexander Smirnov, a paid FBI informant whom prosecutors say has close ties to Russian intelligence agents and whom they accuse of lying about an alleged bribe paid to President Biden and his son Hunter by a Ukrainian gas company.
Since launching an impeachment probe last September, GOP lawmakers have interviewed more than a dozen witnesses and scoured thousands of pages of documents and bank records, all unrelated to Mr. Smirnov’s unsubstantiated bombshell claim that Burisma Holdings executives paid then-Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, $5 million each to help the company shake off a corruption probe.
Republicans say Mr. Smirnov’s allegations are not a factor in their inquiry, and they are instead focused on bank documents showing the Biden family raked in millions of dollars in profits from foreign business deals that ex-business associates and other witnesses say were leveraged on Joe Biden’s name.
“Nothing has changed,” said a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, which is also involved in the impeachment inquiry. “We have plenty of evidence of impeachable conduct.”
Democrats have seized on Mr. Smirnov’s arrest as evidence that the entire impeachment probe is not only politically motivated but is another case of Russian collusion aimed at defeating Democrats in the presidential election.
“If they continue with this investigation, they are simply doing the work of Vladimir Putin to help Donald Trump win an election in November,” Rep. Dan Goldman, New York Democrat, posted on X.
Their claims echo accusations following Mr. Trump’s 2016 White House win that his campaign worked with the Russians to win the election. A lengthy investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III found no evidence Mr. Trump or his campaign coordinated with the Russians, but many Democrats continue to claim he collaborated with them to defeat Hillary Clinton.
Democrats say the GOP is engaging in Russian collusion once again, this time to defeat Mr. Biden.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability panel, which is running the impeachment probe, announced this week that the impeachment inquiry should end in light of Mr. Smirnov’s arrest.
“The whole thing is not only false and fraudulent, but a product of Russian disinformation and propaganda,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said. “That’s been the motor force behind this investigation for more than a year.”
Mr. Smirnov is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI.
Prosecutors say Mr. Smirnov, a longtime confidential human source paid six figures by the agency, “provided false and derogatory information” to the bureau. Mr. Smirnov claimed Burisma executives told him in 2015 and 2016 that they paid both Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Biden $5 million each to protect the company from “all kinds of problems,” among them a corruption probe by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
Through email evidence, travel records and witness testimony, the indictment described how Mr. Smirnov could not have met with Burisma officials when he claimed, undermining his entire bribery accusation against the Bidens.
Prosecutors are seeking to have Mr. Smirnov jailed and argued in court documents he had plans to travel outside the U.S. to meet with “multiple foreign intelligence agencies.” Prosecutors said Mr. Smirnov, an Israeli citizen, is “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections,” and obtained some of his information from Russian intelligence agents.
Democrats are portraying Mr. Smirnov’s unsubstantiated claims as the basis for the GOP’s impeachment probe. But the inquiry so far has centered on other witnesses, including former business associates who testified that the “Biden brand” helped them secure lucrative deals, and the brand was Joe Biden.
Two former business associates reported Mr. Biden would stop by Hunter Biden’s business meetings or phone in to those meetings, which lawmakers say helped the family and their associates rake in $20 million from foreign business deals. Bank records show Mr. Biden pocketed some of the proceeds via checks written from his brother’s bank account that were labeled loan repayments.
Ex-business associate Rob Walker described one of those meetings, which took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington D.C. shortly after Mr. Biden’s second term as vice president ended. Mr. Walker and Hunter Biden were meeting with eight executives from the Chinese energy firm CEFC as they worked to secure a deal to help the company break into the U.S. energy market.
Mr. Biden showed up, sitting down with the executives for several minutes. Mr. Biden led the conversation but did not discuss the business deal.
CEFC ultimately paid the Biden family and their associates millions of dollars. Lawmakers have traced $40,000 of the CEFC proceeds to Joe Biden via the loan repayment from his brother.
“It’s like that deal doesn’t get finalized until Joe Biden shows up at the Four Seasons — a drop-by, “ Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said.