Dems want answers: Why did GOP use Russia's Alexander Smirnov in Biden impeachment probe?

WASHINGTON -- 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.

Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., a former federal prosecutor, said Smirnov’s ties to Russian intelligence are especially concerning because they appear to be part of a Kremlin election-meddling operation that dates back to 2016, when efforts to smear Hillary Clinton by hacking her and her staff's emails helped Vladimir Putin’s favored candidate, Donald Trump in his campaign to win the White House.

“I think it is imperative that given all of the different efforts that are confirmed by Russia to interfere in our election in 2016, our election in 2020 and now apparently our election in 2024 that the FBI needs to determine whether and to what extent members of Congress or the Senate knew about Russia's effort to meddle in our election for the benefit of Donald Trump,” said Goldman, who also served as lead counsel in the first impeachment of former President Trump.

Federal investigators have concluded that Smirnov's effort “to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues … (and) is not confined to 2020,” according to a Feb. 20 Justice Department detention memo, in which they argued successfully for keeping Smirnov in custody before trial.

“He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November,” federal prosecutors wrote. “In light of that fact there is a serious risk he will flee in order to avoid accountability for his actions.”

In the detention memo, prosecutors describe numerous occasions in recent months where Smirnov told his FBI handler about meetings with high-ranking Russian intelligence officials. In one instance, he related how Russian intelligence officials “intercepted several calls placed by prominent US persons the Russian government may use as 'kompromat' in the 2024 election, depending on who the candidates will be.” It did not provide any details, but kompromat is information used to blackmail a target.

'Like filing a police report'

Both Goldman and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in interviews that the Republicans were warned last fall that the information provided by Smirnov in an FBI interview form known as an FD-1023 hadn’t been vetted.

“We were told specifically by the FBI that there's no way they can vouch for the veracity of the allegations contained in a 1023, and that these are just unverified allegations that are written down by an FBI agent,” Raskin told USA TODAY, citing a briefing lawmakers received.

“It's like filing a police report. Anybody can go in and make any kind of allegations want, and then you need to go and check them out,” Raskin said. “And when the FBI checked out these allegations, it turns out that they were completely fraudulent, and they were part of a clear effort to deceive the FBI” by someone connected to Russian intelligence.

Some lawmakers and former U.S. counter-intelligence officials – echoing Goldman and the Justice Department detention memo – say Smirnov’s accusations against Biden bear all the hallmarks of being part of an ongoing and clandestine Kremlin effort to smear Biden and help Trump in the upcoming election, where he is the presumptive GOP nominee.

“I have no idea whether they are witting collaborators,” Raskin said of the GOP lawmakers pushing for Biden’s impeachment. But by aggressively pushing Smirnov's falsehoods, "many of them have been active participants in what is essentially a Russian disinformation campaign.”

On Monday, Raskin sent a letter to Comer requesting that he "now make public all information related to your decision last July to release a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Form FD-1023 containing unverified, uncorroborated, and unsubstantiated allegations."

Especially suspect timing

The timing of Smirnov’s now-disproven Burisma allegations are especially suspect, Goldman said, because they initially occurred in October of 2020, just before the presidential election that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Similar efforts by Russia to meddle in the 2016 election in favor of Trump were corroborated by DOJ Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in 2019.

Republicans have downplayed the FBI’s discrediting and arrest of Smirnov, saying their case is based on a broad array of information and that they will continue their effort. So far none of Smirnov’s claims, or the broader impeachment probe, have implicated President Biden in any way in alleged wrongdoing by Hunter Biden in his dealings with Burisma and other international business firms.

“All I’m saying is you gotta ask the FBI about that,” Jordan told reporters when asked about Smirnov. “He may in fact have given false information, I don’t know.”

A false claim that went viral

In their indictment last month, prosecutors said Smirnov lied about Burisma executives telling him they paid $5 million apiece to then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter so that Hunter "will take care of all those issues through his dad."

Congressional Republicans found out about Smirnov’s FD-1023 last summer and demanded a copy of it from the FBI, which initially refused in an effort to protect sources and methods of investigation. After the FBI agreed to let some lawmakers review it, Republicans began citing it repeatedly as evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden himself.

In ordering House committees to begin a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden last September, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters his party had uncovered called "serious and credible corruption allegations” including bank records. “Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy, R-Calif., wasn’t the only one. Other Republicans cited Smirnov as a key witness on scores or even hundreds of occasions, often in appearances on GOP-friendly TV networks and social media.

McCarthy and Jordan did not respond to requests for comment through their spokespersons. In a statement released to USA TODAY, Comer said the impeachment inquiry is "not reliant" on the Smirnov FD-1023.

"It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings. Witnesses have confirmed Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Bidens around the world," Comer said. "President Biden continues to lie to the American people about this matter and the American people demand the truth and accountability for any wrongdoing. We will continue to follow the facts to propose legislation to reform federal ethics laws and to determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted.”

The White House -- and Biden -- flatly deny all of the GOP claims and say they have found no evidence to support any of it.

"They’re up to like 20 witnesses who testified and 100,000 pages of financial records that show no involvement by President Biden in any wrongdoing," Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson, posted on X on March 6 after Comer and others continued to push the "corrupt Biden family" narrative. "It’s not that Americans don’t already have the facts It’s that Comer ignores them so he can keep going on Hannity to push his lies."

After Smirnov's arrest, Sams requested that Fox News retract all mentions of him and his claims of the $5 million bribes.

“I would cite the number of times Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity promoted this allegation and made false statements about President Biden on primetime television throughout this time period, but the footnote citations would fill multiple pages,” Sams, who is also a special assistant to the President and senior advisor to the White House Counsel’s Office said in his request. “As you of course now know, the source of this allegation has been federally indicted for making the whole thing up. Despite this, Fox has taken no steps to retract, correct, or update its reporting on this false allegation from 2023.”

Sams also took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to show how Comer’s House Oversight Committee had deleted this prominent bullet point: “FBI Form 1023 alleging then-Vice President Joe Biden engaged in a bribery and extortion scheme and ultimately received $5 million from a Burisma executive.”

“Lol, look what ‘key evidence’ just magically disappeared all the sudden from House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry website!,” Sams posted on Feb. 22.

Claims at the heart of the GOP impeachment investigation

Smirnov, who is approximately 43, had served as a confidential FBI source for more than a decade before being arrested on charges of lying to the FBI. Prosecutors said they had concluded the dual U.S.-Israeli citizen had fabricated the claim at the heart of the GOP inquiry, that a Burisma executive told him around 2015 or 2016 that the company had paid bribes of $5 million each to members of Biden’s family.

The federal grand jury in California specifically indicted Smirnov on two counts of making a false statement and creating a fictitious record, in reference to the FD-1023. Prosecutors alleged that Smirnov actually didn’t meet the Ukrainian energy executive in question until 2017, or a year after he said the executive told him about the supposed bribes – and after Biden had left office as vice president in the Obama administration.

The charges against Smirnov were the result of the investigation into Hunter Biden led by special counsel and federal prosecutor David Weiss. Smirnov, who has pleaded not guilty to both charges, remains in custody.

Hallmarks of a Russian influence operation

Raskin, Goldman and a host of other Democrats have called for the Republicans to shut down the probe, citing Smirnov’s connections to Russian intelligence, and testimony by Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James disputing the allegations.

Karen Greenaway, a retired FBI supervisory special agent specializing in Russian international corruption and crime, said Smirnov’s activities – and the timing of them – looked like a typical Russian intelligence operation that is careful to camouflage its role.

“It has the hallmarks of them putting out disinformation to sources that they know are intended to muddy the waters. When you start to look behind him, you can't support them, like the Hillary Clinton allegations” in 2016, Greenaway said of Smirnov.

Greenaway said it’s critically important that the FBI investigate how the Smirnov allegations made their way to the heart of the GOP impeachment effort, in order to help the U.S. ward off future clandestine efforts to influence American politics, including the 2024 election.

“Unfortunately, that will never happen,” Greenaway said, citing what she said are FBI fears of investigating Russian interference in U.S. politics. The agency is hesitant, she said, because Trump ordered a special counsel investigation of the agents who had examined the 2016 Russian effort to help him.

That probe by Special Counsel John Durham took four years and $6.6 million to complete and targeted FBI and Justice officials for allegedly acting illegally in investigating Trump. Ultimately, Durham didn't find that, but he charged three people for peripheral violations. One pleaded guilty, and two won acquittals at trial.

But because Durham and Republicans in Congress “weaponized” that special counsel investigation against agents and prosecutors, Greenaway said, “The bottom line is, there's no way that the DOJ is going to touch that with a thousand-foot pole” in the current case.

Greenaway confirmed that the FBI, per protocol, would have given congressional lawmakers ample warning about not using information in a Form 1023 as proof of anything. But she said she suspected that they likely continued using it because it helped the anti-Biden narrative they were pushing.

She said the lawmakers didn't care about what Russia was doing "as long as it helps them gain what they need politically to stay in office,” Greenaway said. “I think other Republicans have made that point to them, and they’re like, 'yeah, no, we don’t care.'”

GOP wants answers from the FBI too

Some Republicans who have pushed the Smirnov narrative are now trying to blame the FBI and Justice for not appropriately warning them.

In a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray last Friday, Jordan and Comer – the chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees respectively – said the charges against Smirnov raise "even greater concerns about abuse and mismanagement in the FBI's [informant] program."

"Although the FBI and Justice Department received Mr. Smirnov's information in 2020, it was only after the FD-1023 was publicly released nearly three years later — implicating President Biden and his family — that the FBI apparently decided to conduct any review of Mr. Smirnov's credibility as a CHS," or confidential human source, wrote the two committee chairmen who are spearheading the Biden impeachment effort. "During the intervening period, the FBI represented to Congress that the CHS was 'highly credible' and that the release of his information would endanger Americans."

The two demanded that the FBI give their committees all documents involving criminal cases over the past 14 years that used information provided by Smirnov as an FBI informant. They also want to know how much he got paid by the FBI, and gave Wray until March 15 to provide it.

The FBI about-face, Comer and Jordan wrote, "is just another example of how the FBI is motivated by politics."

But Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, said his colleagues were warned about using the unverified information from Smirnov, and went ahead and did it anyway.

“We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness's testimony, we were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known and yet people, my colleagues, went out and talked to the public about how this was credible and how it was damning and how it proved President Biden's – at the time Vice President Biden's – complicity in receiving bribes,” Buck, a former prosecutor, said on CNN last month. “It appears to absolutely be false.”

“So, James Comer and Jim Jordan, they knew that this was not corroborated information yet they still went public with it talked about it on television, used it to fuel these investigations regardless?” Buck was asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

"That's what it appears," Buck replied.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GOP used Russian asset in Biden impeachment probe. Dems want answers.