Democrats have resuscitated claims that Republican lawmakers are colluding with Russia, this time in the House impeachment investigation of President Biden.
Republicans reject the allegations, which are based on the arrest of Alexander Smirnov, a paid FBI informant. Prosecutors say Mr. Smirnov has close ties to Russian intelligence agents and accuse him of lying about an alleged Ukrainian gas company bribe paid to President Biden and his son Hunter.
Since launching an impeachment investigation in September, Republican 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 do not factor into their inquiry. They said they are focused instead on bank documents showing the Biden family raked in millions of dollars in profits from foreign business deals that former business associates and other witnesses say were leveraged on the Biden name.
“Nothing has changed,” said a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, which is 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 investigation is politically motivated and is another case of Russian collusion aimed at defeating Democrats in the presidential election.
SEE ALSO: Hunter Biden says staying sober key to defeating Trump
“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. Daniel Goldman, New York Democrat, posted on X.
Their claims echo accusations that Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign worked with Russians to win the election. A lengthy investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III found no evidence that Mr. Trump or his campaign coordinated with Russians, but many Democrats continue to claim collaboration to defeat Hillary Clinton.
Democrats say Republicans are engaging in Russian collusion again, this time to defeat Mr. Biden.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which is running the impeachment investigation, announced last week that the 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,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. “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 whom the bureau paid six figures, “provided false and derogatory information.” Mr. Smirnov claimed Burisma executives told him in 2015 and 2016 that they paid the vice president and his son $5 million each to protect the company from “all kinds of problems,” among them a corruption investigation 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 detained and argued in court documents that 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 Republicans’ impeachment investigation, 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. They said the brand was Mr. Biden, the current president.
Two former business associates reported that Mr. Biden would stop by Hunter Biden’s business meetings or phone into 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.
Former business associate Rob Walker described a meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington 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 arrived and sat down with the executives for several minutes. He 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 the president via the loan repayments from his brother.
“It’s like that deal doesn’t get finalized until Joe Biden shows up at the Four Seasons — a drop-by,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.