ABC: FBI informant charged with lying about Joe and Hunter Biden's ties to Ukrainian energy company [View all]

[Botany]

Last edited Fri Feb 16, 2024, 10:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Edit DUer Qutzupalotl had already posted much of this yesterday

WASHINGTON -- An FBI informant has been charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Alexander Smirnov falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said in an indictment. Smirnov told his handler that an executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” according to court documents.

Prosecutors say Smirnov in fact had only routine business dealings with the company in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate.

snip

The informant’s claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. An attorney for Hunter Biden, who is expected to give a deposition later this month, said the charges show the probe is "based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fbi-informant-charged-lying-joe-hunter-bidens-ties-107276419


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So the informant that the MAGA Republicans in Congress were using to bring about
impeachment charges against President Biden is now in jail and charged with lying
to the FBI?

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Washington Post

For several months, Comer in particular publicly pushed for the release of an FBI interview form documenting the allegation — an allegation provided to the bureau by an informant who claimed to have been told about the bribe by a Ukrainian businessman. Grassley slowly leaked out new details from the interview document, such as a claim that there might be telephone recordings of the parties involved in the alleged bribe, including President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Eventually, Grassley released the whole document.

As it turns out, the Justice Department was working on the verifiability of the allegation. On Thursday, it unsealed an indictment: The informant who alleged that he’d been told about the bribe had allegedly made the whole thing up.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/15/remember-biden-bribe-allegation-doj-now-says-it-was-made-up/