The Room Where It Happened . . .
By Keith DB
Community
I previously wrote how the Republican star witness in the Biden impeachment inquiry has been indicted on charges of making the whole thing up. It now turns out he didn’t make it up by himself. He had help. That help came from Russian intelligence services.
Yesterday federal prosecutors filed a motion to keep Alexander Smirnov in jail pending trial, essentially to deny him bail. For the record, that request was denied and Smirnov was released on bail, with strong restrictions that included ankle monitoring and forfeiting his passports. However, the facts laid out in the motion detail that Smirnov is a Russian agent and attempted to frame Joe Biden at the behest of Russian intelligence agencies. Republicans, to include committee heads James Comer and Jim Jordan, played right into the Russian’s hands. The only question now, and it is a real question, is whether they did so knowingly.
It’s difficult to convey how thoroughly Republicans relied on Smirnov’s claim that Joe Biden was paid $5 million to get a Russian prosecutor fired who was supposedly (but not really) investigating, Burisma, the Ukrainian company Hunter Biden worked for.
Jim Jordan declared it “really the heart of this matter.” He described it as “the most corroborating evidence we have.” Comer threatened contempt proceedings against FBI Director Wray if he didn’t release the document where FBI agents memorialized Smirnov claim that is now known to be lie. Last July Chuck Grassley openly leaked the document touting it as proof of “Biden family influence peddling.” Upon reading it, Representative Anna Paulina declared Biden “100% guilty” of bribery. In what should now be viewed a reflection of her own credibility, Marjorie Taylor Green declared the now indicted for lying witness as “extremely credible” and presented his FBI interviews as absolute proof:
“This is an impeachable document. President Biden should be impeached. Secondly, he should be prosecuted. This is unbelievable. It’s a pay-to-play scheme. He took a bribe from a from a foreign national in a foreign country that paid millions of dollars. He needs to be prosecuted for this, and I would argue that he should serve jail time. If we were not politically divided, if we were the United States that used to exist, that is righteous and just, if we were a just nation, Joe Biden would be impeached. No one could argue with this. Democrat or Republican, I would say no one can argue with it now.”
That’s how deeply invested Republicans were into what are now revealed to be nothing short of Russian intelligence driven lies. Lies that continued through 2023. In short, 2024 Russian election meddling that Republicans were boosting.
Back to the motion to keep Alexander Smirnov in jail pending trial, when you read it keep in mind that “Public Official 1” is Joe Biden and “Businessperson 1” is Hunter Biden. When quoting from it, I will be substituting their actual names for those terms. I will also cite where in the motion something is by page and line number. For example a reference to “3–11” means you can find that on page 3 starting at line 11.
Smirnov was a confidential human source (CHS) assigned a FBI Handler who he talked to almost daily for ten years. In June 2020 Smirnov first told his Handler, that in meetings in 2015 and 2016, Burisma officials told him they hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” Smirnov told his Handler that Burisman officials said they paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million so that Hunter Biden would “take care of all those issues through his dad.” (4–11). Smirnov told his Handler that these meetings were one or two months before Joe Biden got the Ukrainian prosecutor fired. (8–12).
In the blunt words of the motion: “The events Smirnov first reported to the Handler in June 2020 were fabrications.” (5–1). In fact, Smirnov never met with, or talked to, any Burisma representatives until 2017, after Joe Biden had gotten the do nothing Ukrainian prosecutor fired, and after Joe Biden was no longer even in office and capable of protecting anyone from anything. Smirnov claims at least one of these meetings occurred when he traveled to Vienna and met with the Burisma officials in a cafe. Alas, prosecutors have proof that Smirnov never travelled to Vienna. (14–7).
For a decade Smirnov was a valued confidential human source because he had connections to Russian intelligence officials, including “a high-ranking member of a specific Russian foreign intelligence service” (16–17). His meetings included another Russian official “who controls groups that are engaged in overseas assassination efforts.” The motion makes clear that Smirnov used his extensive Russian contacts to try to frame Joe Biden to influence the 2024 election.
Smirnov met with yet another Russian intelligence official who Smirnov claimed told him Russian intelligence had intercepted calls made at a Ukrainian hotel made by prominent Americans. Smirnov told the FBI the Russian intelligence officer said they thereby gathered information the Russians planned to use as “kompromat in the 2024 election, depending on who the candidates will be.” (17–1). Smirnov suggested one of the hotel’s users, so kompromatted, was Hunter Biden. The next five plus pages detail Smirnov’s extensive contacts with Russian agents.
Smirnov told prosecutors Hunter Biden went to this hotel in Kiev “many times” and that he had personally seen recordings of Biden entering and leaving the hotel as the Russians had the hotel “wired.” (23–5). Smirnov suggested the Russians had recorded calls Hunter Biden made while at the hotel. According to Smirnov, the Russians intelligence officers told him they seek to influence the 2024 Presidential elections, through Ukraine, by using the tapes they recorded of Hunter Biden while at this hotel. (24–1).
The huge problem with this is that Hunter Biden has never travelled to Ukraine. (23–13). You might think Hunter had to go to Ukraine, being on the Board of Burisma and all, apparently Smirnov thought that to. However, according to the indictment, Hunter Biden never travelled to Ukraine and the few Burisma Board meeting he did attend “were all outside of Ukraine.”
The prosecutors make clear:
“Smirnov’s contacts with Russian officials who are affiliated with Russian intelligence services are not benign . . . Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues . . . the misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020. He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.” (23–5) and (24–6).
Keep in mind this prosecutor, David Weiss, is no friend of Hunter Biden. He is the same Trump appointed prosecutor who has indicted Hunter Biden on charges of tax evasion and illegally purchasing a gun.
For how long have Republicans pushing Smirnov as the smoking gun in their impeachment inquiry known he was a Russian agent, and that his allegations were concocted by Russian intelligence services? I don’t know. However, that is what should be getting investigated now. The Bidens are exonerated. In breaking news today, Republicans are trying to scrub references to Smirnov from their impeachment records.
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