Informant’s connection to Russian intelligence tangles House GOP’s push to impeach Biden
Good morning, US politics blog readers. For months, Republicans in the House of Representatives have been inching forward with an effort to impeach Joe Biden for alleged corruption. They have been particularly fixated on his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, but the case against the president was dealt a major blow in recent days, after federal prosecutors brought charges against the former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. The GOP fixated on Smirnov’s claims that both Bidens received bribes from a Ukrainian energy company, but prosecutors say those were fabricated. In another filing yesterday, the plot unraveled further: Smirnov allegedly had contacts with Russian intelligence, the government said.
What does all this mean for Republicans? The Biden impeachment effort hasn’t exactly been a top priority in recent months, and isn’t going to get the president out of office – Democrats control the Senate, and are sure to reject the charges. Congress is out, but Biden’s Republican antagonists in the House such as the oversight committee chair, James Comer, and the judiciary committee chair, Jim Jordan, will be pressed to react to the Smirnov affair – we’ll let you know if we hear from them today.
Here’s what else is going on:
-
Biden speaks at 3.45pm from Culver City, California. He traveled to the Golden State yesterday, mostly for campaign events.
-
James Biden is taking part in a behind-closed-doors deposition as part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president.
-
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, told ABC News she would seize Donald Trump’s properties if he can’t pay the big civil fraud judgment against him.
Key events
The supreme court just released two opinions – neither of which deal with the major Donald Trump-related issues pending before the justices.
We’re still waiting to hear from the conservative-dominated body on whether they will uphold a Colorado supreme court decision excluding the former president from the ballot on the grounds that he committed an insurrection. All indications point to most, if not all, of the nine justices overturning the ruling and allowing him to remain on ballots nationwide.
There also has not been any word on what they will do with Trump’s challenge to an appeals court ruling that found he is not immune from prosecution over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. That matter has frozen his federal trial in Washington DC on the charges, which were brought by the special counsel Jack Smith.
In an interview with CNN, the House Democrat Dan Goldman called on the GOP to drop its impeachment investigation against Joe Biden after the involvement of Russian intelligence in spreading stories about Hunter Biden was revealed:
The Comer/Jordan impeachment sham appears to have been a Russian intelligence operation from the start.
The only remaining question is whether Rs were witting or unwitting agents of Putin in their desperate quest to get Trump reelected.
Will the GOP continue to work for Putin? pic.twitter.com/erzG7b54sU
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) February 21, 2024
Goldman serves on the oversight committee, whose Republican chair, James Comer, has been a leader in the impeachment push.
Russian intelligence link to Hunter Biden allegations emerged after prosecutors’ attempted to keep Smirnov in jail
Federal prosecutors revealed the connection between Russian intelligence and the former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov yesterday, when they argued that Smirnov should be detained while he awaited trial on charges related to lying to the FBI.
In a court document, prosecutors said that Smirnov revealed Russian intelligence’s involvement during a 14 February interview, when he was arrested in Las Vegas after returning to the United States from overseas. However, the line is vague – it does not specify exactly what information Moscow spread about Hunter Biden.
“During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about” Biden, the filing says, without elaborating.
The Associated Press reports that a judge allowed Smirnov to be released on bail while awaiting trial, and is being monitored by an electronic GPS device.
Informant’s connection to Russian intelligence tangles House GOP’s push to impeach Biden
Good morning, US politics blog readers. For months, Republicans in the House of Representatives have been inching forward with an effort to impeach Joe Biden for alleged corruption. They have been particularly fixated on his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, but the case against the president was dealt a major blow in recent days, after federal prosecutors brought charges against the former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. The GOP fixated on Smirnov’s claims that both Bidens received bribes from a Ukrainian energy company, but prosecutors say those were fabricated. In another filing yesterday, the plot unraveled further: Smirnov allegedly had contacts with Russian intelligence, the government said.
What does all this mean for Republicans? The Biden impeachment effort hasn’t exactly been a top priority in recent months, and isn’t going to get the president out of office – Democrats control the Senate, and are sure to reject the charges. Congress is out, but Biden’s Republican antagonists in the House such as the oversight committee chair, James Comer, and the judiciary committee chair, Jim Jordan, will be pressed to react to the Smirnov affair – we’ll let you know if we hear from them today.
Here’s what else is going on:
-
Biden speaks at 3.45pm from Culver City, California. He traveled to the Golden State yesterday, mostly for campaign events.
-
James Biden is taking part in a behind-closed-doors deposition as part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president.
-
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, told ABC News she would seize Donald Trump’s properties if he can’t pay the big civil fraud judgment against him.