Hunter Biden says special counsel used Alexander Smirnov's discredited bribery claims to derail his plea deal

[Kid Berwyn]

Does anyone know if Alexander Smirnov will be a witness in the Hunter Biden trial? If so, I hope Special Counsel David Weiss knows Smirnov has been working for Team Putin.

Hunter Biden says special counsel used Alexander Smirnov’s discredited bribery claims to derail his plea deal

by Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand
CNN, February 20, 2024

Hunter Biden’s lawyers accused special counsel David Weiss on Tuesday of using a since-discredited bribery allegation from an FBI informant to blow up his plea deal last year.

In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for the president’s son asked a judge to force Weiss’ team to turn over additional information about the plea deal that went awry, and to provide materials about their discussions regarding a tip from by Alexander Smirnov, a 43-year-old former informant who was indicted for lying to the FBI about the Bidens’ alleged business dealings.

Snip...

“It now seems clear that the Smirnov allegations infected this case,” they wrote, adding that prosecutors followed Smirnov down a “rabbit hole of lies” and “having taken Mr. Smirnov’s bait of grand, sensational charges, the Diversion Agreement that had just been entered into and Plea Agreement that was on the verge of being finalized suddenly became inconvenient for the prosecution, and it reversed course and repudiated those Agreements.”

Snip...

In a statement Tuesday, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said Weiss “has gone to extreme lengths to bring charges against Mr. Biden that would not have been filed against anyone else.”

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https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/20/politics/alexander-smirnov-hunter-biden/index.html

This Smirnov fellah is connected to the wrong side of the fence.

How clean is the dirt on Hunter Biden?

A key Republican source is charged with lying to the FBI

BY BRIAN SLODYSKO, ERIC TUCKER AND ANTHONY MCCARTNEY
Updated 5:40 PM EDT, March 4, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alexander Smirnov was cast by Republicans as one of the FBI’s most trusted informants, offering a “highly credible” account of brazen public corruption by Joe Biden that formed a pillar of the House impeachment investigation of the Democratic president.

SNIP...

A MURKY PAST

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A dual Israeli and U.S. citizen, Smirnov moved to the United States in 2006, traveling in Los Angeles’ Eastern European expatriate circles for more than a decade while providing information to the FBI. It wasn’t immediately clear what investigations Smirnov may have contributed to, though he worked with an FBI handler based in Seattle and the indictment suggests he provided reporting related to “ROC” — a likely reference to Russian organized crime.

A short biography included in a corporate financial document from 2011 describes Smirnov as a veteran businessman “fluent in Russian, English, Hebrew and Arabic” who once was president of a “private mineral and logistic operation, with assets in Russia.”

‘I’LL TRY TO PROVE IT FOR YOU BRO’

“It’s all over the news in Russia and Ukraine” Smirnov texted his handler in May 2020. In another text at the time, he said, “I’ll try to prove it for you bro.”

He later said a Burisma official told him during the waning days of the Obama administration that Joe and Hunter Biden had each accepted $5 million bribes in exchange for a promise to alter U.S. policy in Burisma’s favor. Smirnov claimed recordings existed of a Burisma official being “forced” to pay.

Continues...

https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-fbi-informant-smirnov-ukraine-impeachment-113c1104052dbdc9302606f6d42c9939

Gee. A crooked business man fluent in money. How much has he gotten paid to set-up Hunter Biden?

[BoRaGard]

1. ?

[Kid Berwyn]

4. I'd like to understand the role played by a Russian agent.

Can, and if so, how will his "testimony" be used against Hunter Biden?

Man accused of lying to FBI about Hunter Biden claimed he got fake information from Russian intelligence

by Robert Legare
February 21, 2024 / CBS News

Washington — The man accused last week of delivering false allegations to federal investigators about Hunter Biden and President Biden's business dealings told officials after his arrest that individuals "associated with Russian intelligence" were tied to apparent efforts to peddle a story about the first son, federal prosecutors revealed in a court filing Tuesday.

Alexander Smirnov was arrested last week after being charged with two counts that alleged he lied to the FBI. Special counsel David Weiss — the Trump-appointed prosecutor tasked with investigating the president's son — accused Smirnov of providing his FBI handlers with fake allegations about Hunter and Mr. Biden in 2020. He claimed the two Bidens each accepted $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The claims "were false, as the Defendant knew," according to the charging documents filed against him.

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The indictment against Smirnov unsealed last week accused him of "expressing a bias" against then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in May 2020 text messages with his FBI handler, expressing a view that Mr. Biden was "going to jail."

The defendant's now-debunked claims in 2020 — including that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma hired Hunter Biden for protection "through his dad" and that Hunter and Mr. Biden were paid millions by the company — were memorialized in an FBI document known as an FD 1023.

That document and the claims within it that federal prosecutors now say are false have been central to congressional Republicans' investigation of Mr. Biden and his son. They have pointed to the document's allegations of bribery as evidence of misdeeds.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-alexander-smirnov-joe-biden-russia/

In a more perfect world, Special Counsel Weiss would know all about this. Just wondering if he does and, more importantly, is interested in justice or just-us for TrumPutin.

[Tribetime]

12. 39 days here eom

[Kid Berwyn]

14. "That's Hitler!," Bannon thought.

Steve Bannon thought Trump looked like Hitler as he descended the escalator at his 2016 campaign debut: book

Jake Lahut
Business Insider, Feb. 8, 2022

* A new book from New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters details the origins of the 2016 Trump campaign.

* Steve Bannon, an early Trump advisor, was reminded of a Nazi propaganda film on announcement day.

* Peters writes that Bannon's immediate reaction to Trump's golden escalator ride was "That's Hitler!"

When Donald Trump rode a golden escalator down to announce his presidential candidacy in 2015, the carefully choreographed scene before TV crews reminded a soon-to-be Trump advisor of scenes from one of the most effective propaganda films ever made.

"That's Hitler!, Bannon thought, as the opening scene of Leni Riefenstahl's seminal work of Nazi propaganda, 'Triumph of the Will,' flashed through his mind," New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters writes in his new book, "Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted."

In his notes on sourcing — which involved interviews with over 300 people, mostly while Trump was still in office — Peters explains that quotes presented in italics and in the past tense indicate "material from interviews conducted with the author on-the-record."

Continues…

https://www.businessinsider.com/bannon-thought-trump-resembled-hitler-on-his-escalator-ride-book-2022-2

It really does fly sometimes. Thank you for the kind reminder, Tribetime!

[Botany]

2. I hope Hunter Biden sues the hell out of Special Counsel David Weiss for this sham

Let me see the right is using a corrupt Russian operative to hurt the Biden Family.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. GOP in Congress stood behind the Russian agent 100-MAGA percent.

Two of the worst for the Reich, Jim Jordan and James Comer, have a lot to answer for. Were it up to me, I'd ask the FBI to open an investigation on them for being agents working on behalf of Putin and Russia.

Dems want answers:

Why did GOP use Russia's Alexander Smirnov in Biden impeachment probe?

by Josh Meyer
USA Today, March 11, 2024

When former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov claimed President Joe Biden and his son Hunter took $5 million bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, House Republicans deemed it a key piece of evidence against President Joe Biden in their ongoing impeachment investigation. Then Smirnov was indicted by a federal grand jury last month for lying to the FBI about the allegations just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

So the House GOP quietly scrubbed a reference to Smirnov's alleged smear of Biden from their impeachment website.

But federal authorities also revealed that Smirnov, arrested Feb. 14 at a Las Vegas airport, got the false claim from his contacts in the upper echelons of Russian intelligence.

Now, some House Democrats tell USA TODAY that the DOJ needs to investigate what leading Republican impeachment advocates like Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. James Comer of Kentucky knew about Smirnov’s false claims – and when they knew it – to determine whether they have been implicated in an ongoing Kremlin propaganda campaign.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/03/11/biden-impeachment-inquiry-alexander-smirnov/72852627007/

I'd call these GOP traitors, "turds," but that's an insult to turds.

[Botany]

7. This much like Trump's impeachment # 1 where he was asking for foreign operatives with connections...

… to Russia to make up stuff on his enemies and if there is some blackmail, bribes,
and or pressure on the party which is being asked to “find some dirt” oh well. And even
though non of the stories are true it makes not one wit to those unAmerican GOP
shit birds or the Republican’s own tv Pravda called Fox.

Dwight David Eisenhower must be rolling in his grave at these actions.

[Kid Berwyn]

8. Weaponized Intelligence Community

A NAZIfied IC is the only thing worse than a Weaponized Department of Justice. Trump got away with using the Government of the United States to smear a private citizen and his father, the former Veep.

It's the Republicans' biggest impeachment lie, and Americans could fall for it

Trump did not fail to extort the Ukrainians — he got caught in the act. This distinction is incredibly important

DALEY GRUEN
Salon.com, NOVEMBER 23, 2019

“Forthe millions of Americans viewing today, the two most important facts are the following,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said on the first day of public impeachment hearings. “No. 1: Ukraine received the aid. No. 2: There was, in fact, no investigation into Biden.”

Stefanik’s side wants this to be the central point that sticks in our heads: The alleged quid pro quo, where Ukraine would receive military aid appropriated by Congress on the condition that it cooked up an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, did not actually occur because Ukraine received the aid — the quid — and never publicly announced an investigation into Biden — the quo.

Snip...

What is most alarming is not that the GOP is promoting this talking point, but that it appears to be working. Following the impeachment proceedings, The New York Times podcast The Daily concluded with an assessment by top national security reporter Michael Schmidt:

“It’s a reoccurring theme in the Trump story: The president tries to do something but ultimately is not effective enough to actually get it done. So, should we penalize him for those attempts? Does the attempt . . . reach that bar for Congress to remove the president?

Snip...

Trump did not fail to extort the Ukrainians. He got caught in the act. Only after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the launch of an official investigation into his scheme did the aid flow.

Continues...

https://www.salon.com/2019/11/23/its-the-republican-partys-biggest-impeachment-lie-and-americans-could-fall-for-it/

Ike warned us about the Military-Industrial Complex but he gave Nixon the second chance which haunts us to the present day. Nixon fired everyone, "except the Texans" who included Robert Mossbacher and Poppy Bush.

[Lovie777]

3. Corrupt witness that has been debunked.................

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Why is this missing from the television coverage of the trial?

We know the guy's history and how it fits in context. Where's the mainstream media? They're all into the "historical" moment of the son of a sitting president on trial for gun and tax charges that were about to be plea-bargained when the government apparently pulled its offer. None of this should ever have reached this point.

Former U.S. spies warned in 2020 that the Hunter Biden scandal had Russian fingerprints. They feel vindicated now.

The Justice Department said this week that informant Alexander Smirnov invented a story about $5 million bribes paid to Joe and Hunter Biden and is also "peddling new lies."

By Ken Dilanian
Feb. 24, 2024, 7:00 AM EST

The Justice Department’s assertions this week that a longtime FBI informant was seeking to “spread misinformation” designed to hurt President Joe Biden after speaking to Russian intelligence operatives has put a new spotlight on an old debate:

To what extent, if any, has the Russian government manufactured or amplified unproven allegations of corrupt Ukraine dealings by Joe and Hunter Biden?

In a request to revoke his bail, prosecutors said that former informant Alexander Smirnov, charged last week with lying to the FBI in 2020 when he said Joe Biden had received a $5 million bribe, “is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials” as recently as last fall.

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Derogatory information, purportedly from Hunter Biden’s laptop, had surfaced in a New York Post article. Soon afterward, 51 former intelligence officials signed and blasted to the media a letter warning that the laptop story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

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The laptop data included embarrassing photos of Hunter Biden with prostitutes — and emails that detailed his business dealings in Ukraine and China. The mainstream media largely ignored it, while Twitter and Facebook put restrictions on the sharing of the New York Post story.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/former-us-spies-warned-2020-hunter-biden-scandal-russian-fingerprints-rcna140240

So, if the IC warned in 2020 that the Hunter Biden scandal had Russian fingerprints, why was the GOP using him as a witness in a Congressional investigation? I want justice, not GOP just-us. Hunter Biden is being prosecuted by a GOP-appointed US Attorney who was named by AG Garland to serve as Special Counsel. As the GOP no longer lives by the Constitution, I want to know.

[SupportSanity]

9. The plea deal should be back on the table.

[Kid Berwyn]

11. He's going to make a case to a jury of his peers.

The facts are on his side. Maybe his lawyer can apply them to the gun and tax laws he is supposed to have broken.

The jury should hear exactly how then-peeResident Pisswig used the powers of the US Government to frame Hunter Biden and Joe Biden in Ukraine.

How My Work For Trump and Giuliani Sought to Make Ukraine Defenseless

BY LEV PARNAS
TIME, February 13, 2023 2:36 PM EST

Parnas is a Florida businessman and former associate of Rudy Giuliani serving a sentence for fraud and campaign finance violations

EXCERPT...

My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.

Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge. Trump also hated the Ukrainian government because Putin did. Some have said that Putin has compromising information on Trump, regarding money laundering or prostitutes, but those theories are promoted by people who did not know Trump well. I never saw evidence of that kind. Rather, I think the Russian leader had a lot in common with Trump’s father, Fred. Both men were authoritarian leaders who valued ruthlessness and considered it the only way to succeed. I first met Fred when I was selling condos in Brooklyn as a kid and he and Putin struck me the same way. Both men had immense effects on Donald Trump.

Trump acted on his hatred of Ukraine as he tried to improve his re-election chances in 2020. The plan that Giuliani and Trump put into operation was simple. Giuliani sent me to collect compromising information that the Eastern European oligarchs had on Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine to use against Joe Biden. It was also my job to convince the new Ukrainian government to announce an official investigation into Hunter Biden. If they didn’t, the U.S. would not send Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to Zelensky’s inauguration, threatening Zelensky’s domestic stature and his ability to stand up to Putin. Trump also paused much needed military aid for Ukraine while he tried to get Zelensky to open the Biden investigation.

Trump didn’t care if this made Ukraine vulnerable to Russia, which had annexed Crimea from the country in 2014. At about the same time, Trump casually asked me: “How long do you think Ukraine could hold out against a Russian invasion?” I responded: “Not long, without our help.” I eventually realized that not only was I enabling Trump’s dirty tricks in the 2020 election, I was also risking that Ukraine would be essentially unarmed when Putin invaded. Trump was determining the future of two countries and affecting the lives of millions. And who was I? Just another guy who’d made some money from the Soviet Union’s collapse, just some guy from the streets of Brooklyn who hadn’t even finished college.

CONTINUES...

https://time.com/6255090/lev-parnas-giuliani-trump-ukraine/

Twelve human beings will be hearing just to what extent Trump and the GOP have gone to destroy a private citizen and his good name. It's not just illegal, what they've done using their office is treason.

[Mr. Evil]

10. First Hur...

now Weiss. I'm beginning to see a (Merrick Garland) pattern here. It's time for him to resign so he can spend more time with his (Federalist Society) family.

[Kid Berwyn]

13. AG Garland might be making those moves for history.

Shows that the Biden Administration took the highest of high roads in legal matters concerning members of the President’s party and family.

Paraphrasing, but remember President Biden told everyone on Day One, “No self-dealing, no abuse of office. No abuse of staff. No fucking around. No exceptions. And that includes letting the Sick Fuck and his team get away with treason.”

The people working under Trump did not follow the law. Otherwise, he would have been arrested on Jan. 6, 2021 for insurrection and dereliction of duty.

As for the Feudalist Society and its ideological contamination of the US legal system: We must expose them, investigate their actions in office, prosecute the crooks, and shame the ideology into irrelevance.

From SourceWatch.org:

Law students from Yale, Harvard, and the University of Chicago founded the Federalist Society in 1982 with the mission to fill what they saw as a void of conservatism influence in the American judicial system.[4] Many of the original members and founders went on to take influential conservative legal posts -- George W. Bush Solicitor General Theodore Olson, Northwestern University Law Professor Steven G. Calabresi, Reagan's Attorney General Edward Meese, George W. Bush's Energy Secretary and Acting-Attorney General Spencer Abraham and Peter Keisler respectively, Former Member of Congress and Club for Growth President David M. McIntosh and Supreme Court Nominee Robert Bork.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

The organization grew in size and influence. The Federalist Society has shaped in part every Republican president since Ronald Reagan's judicial selections.[12][3]

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Federalist_Society_for_Law_and_Public_Policy_Studies