Last week, DOJ special counsel David Weiss and a federal grand jury in California indicted Smirnov, 43. He is charged with lying about President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma, the Ukrainian energy firm, in particular the claim the son and father split $10 million.
Smirnov’s subsequent arrest was hailed by Democrats in Congress as as a major embarrassment for House Republicans in their effort to impeach Joe Biden.
To others, however, it looks like more of the same from an administration that has shown an easy willingness to aim government law enforcement resources at political opponents.
Smirnov is the informant on the FBI document FD-1023, which is typically used to record information from confidential sources. It was considered a key piece of evidence for Republicans in their impeachment efforts once it was obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and shared with House members.
According to USA Today, on the document Smirnov claims that Burisma executives told him in 2015 and 2016, during Joe Biden’s time as vice president, that Hunter Biden was added as a company board member “to protect us, though his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
Smirnov further claimed he was told by the executives that they paid $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden “to take care of all those issues through his dad.”
According to USA Today, Smirnov’s claims don’t add up with the timeline presented on the indictment. USA Today reports that Smirnov was in touch with the Burisma folks near the end of the Obama-Biden administration in 2017 and after the now-famous firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
The indictment contends that Shokin was fired not because he was investigating Burisma but because U.S. and European officials pushed for Shokin’s removal because he wasn’t doing enough to prosecute corrupt politicians.
Sometime after Shokin’s dismissal, Joe Biden spoke at a Council on Foreign Relations event where he bragged about using his influence to force the firing. That famous clip has been used as evidence Biden got rid of a prosecutor who was hot on his trail.
Smirnov arrest shows DOJ double standard
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) says the arrest of Smirnov underscores DOJ hypocrisy – and the weaponization of government resources – when the department did not pursue ex-British spy Christopher Steele for his infamous role, financed by Hillary Clinton, in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
"Somehow for some reason, this guy, one of their top paid, if not their top paid informant, suddenly on this issue gets arrested by them for making false statements about this case,” Perry said on Washington Watch Monday.
Reacting to Smirnov's legal troubles, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California) has called House impeachment efforts a “sham.” He wrote on X that Smirnov was the “lead informant” for House Oversight Committee chair James Comer.
Miranda Devine, a columnist The New York Post, refuted Garcia’s claim and explained why the FBI is ultimately at fault.
“Not lead informant or any informant at all to the impeachment inquiry,” Devine wrote on X. “This is an FBI problem. It was the FBI’s ‘trusted,’ well paid, long-term informant. Comer could do nothing with the allegation other than publicize it because the FBI kept the informant secret."
Devine further wrote in her post the FBI "finally" investigated Smirnov's allegation in September 2023, which should have been done in 2020, but the DOJ was hiding it from IRS investigators instead.
"That’s the actual scandal," wrote Devine, who has become an expert on the Biden family scandals.
Reacting to Smirnov's indictment, Comer told media his committee’s investigation is “not reliant” on Smirnov’s comments in the federal document, FD-1023.
“I certainly back up the chairman," Perry told show host Tony Perkins, "to say, look, even if this is one piece of the puzzle regarding the Biden's influence peddling scheme and the millions of dollars that have come from foreign countries, this is just one piece and one small piece. It doesn't include the bank records. It doesn't include the millions of dollars. It doesn't include the myriad countries."
No let-up on impeachment inquiry; bring on FBI probe
Even though Democrats would like to see the House impeachment efforts “go away,” they will continue, the Congressman said.
Perry also called for the Department of Justice to investigate its own FBI.
“I don't see any relenting (of the impeachment inquiry) just based on this," he predicted. "If anything else, I think it might further what should be an investigation into the FBI who has taken a very long time to deal with what we know are provable crimes offered by Hunter Biden's laptop.
“As a matter of fact, the FBI was involved in allegedly the cover-up telling the people of the United States that it was Russian propaganda. Where's the investigation into that?”
