The liberal media and the Democratic Party are rejoicing. The key witness, Alexander Smirnov, in the Biden bribery allegations, which is part of the House GOP’s impeachment push, got indicted by the Department of Justice this month for making false claims about Burisma executives paying Joe and Hunter Biden. You could imagine the reaction: GOP impeachment push is dead, and Russian interference is still present in our elections. Except that it’s not. The Russians wanted Hillary Clinton to win in 2016. Smirnov was regarded as a highly trusted source, and now the Justice Department throws him under the bus.
The timing isn’t lost on anyone. It has led to a rebirth of the Russian collusion/disinformation circus that Democrats have been lusting to restart since there isn't much for them to run on this cycle. This indictment provides a nice backdoor for Democrats, Biden officials, and members of the intelligence community to peddle this myth again. Tragically, there are enough liberals who still believe in this nonsense.
The reality is that the Smirnov indictment did more to damage the liberals' argument that the Department of Justice is an independent arbiter and not the political Stasi of the Democratic Party. Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley gave credible and damning testimony last summer about the DOJ’s interference in their IRS investigations into Hunter Biden, which nuked the sweetheart plea deal that could have seen the president’s son getting off the hook on some serious tax and firearm charges. Furthermore, the rising tide of evidence that points to the Biden family’s alleged illegal activities regarding their access-selling schemes far outweighs whatever Smirnov did. Michael Shellenberger and Margot Cleveland at Public—Shellenberger’s Substack—and The Federalist, respectively, wrote about the DOJ throwing their once trusted source of 14 years under the bus. It’s why Shellenberger was taken aback by the lengths the FBI is going to get Smirnov (via Public):
As for the other Republican witness, Alexander Smirnov, his indictment and incarceration last week by Special Counsel David Weiss offers more troubling questions than reassuring answers. According to Weiss, Smirnov “provided false derogatory information” to FBI agents about the Bidens in June 2020.
But it’s not clear why the FBI chose to indict and incarcerate Smirnov after serving for 14 years as what the FBI considered a reliable witness. “I don’t recall ever seeing a false-statements case such as this,” noted former Department of Justice Assistant Attorney Andrew McCarthy.
[…]
…even if Smirnov had lied to his FBI handler, it doesn’t explain the FBI’s extraordinary action to publicly torch someone who had been such a reliable informant for so long. “In an ordinary case,” writes McCarthy, “the Justice Department and FBI do not want to convey the message, ‘Cooperate with us, at high risk to yourself and your family, and we will eventually, and without warning, use what you’ve told us to make a case against you.’”
And it is not clear why Special Counsel Weiss chose to indict and incarcerate Smirnov now rather than at some other point in the three and a half years since he allegedly lied to his handler.
It may be tempting to dismiss what is happening as much ado about nothing. Democrats and Republicans are dueling over the credibility of witnesses for the impeachment of President Biden. And, their credibility aside, neither Galanis nor Smirnov appear to have revealed anything new. In truth, the episode provides striking proof that at the heart of the Biden family's influence-peddling business were efforts to profit from the political control over oil and natural gas in both North America and Europe.
Cleveland looked at both sides and determined that there was enough evidence, some especially incriminating for Smirnov, to charge him with lying to his handlers. Still, the FD-1023 was locked away until the Biden plea deal imploded. She said the indictment could cast a shadow on the mountains of incriminating evidence concerning the Biden influence-peddling scheme. And while Smirnov might deserve being indicted (I’m not so sure, still), Cleveland was quick to note other confidential sources who lied and got away with it. Stefan Halper kept the Russian collusion fires going based on information he manufactured. Rodney Joffe sent the DOJ on a wild goose chase concerning Trump and Alfa Bank.
But the Smirnov indictment also makes a case that the Justice Department and Special Counsel David Weiss are exceptionally incompetent, so much so that there could be an argument for impeachment against Mr. Weiss. (via The Federalist):
Weiss’s indictment presents a powerful case that Smirnov lied on June 26, 2020, when the CHS told his handler he’d had conversations with Burisma executives in 2015 and 2016: An investigation by Weiss’s team concluded Smirnov did not meet the Burisma executives until March 1, 2017, meaning the earlier conversations could not have occurred. The indictment references introductory emails that established the alleged accurate timing of events, as well as travel records of other individuals, which contradict Smirnov’s claims. That evidence, the special counsel’s office concluded, was sufficient to charge Smirnov with making false statements and creating a false record.
[…]
While the double standard is infuriating, assuming the allegations against Smirnov are true, charges are eminently justified.
Also justified? Impeaching David Weiss.
[…]
Thursday’s indictment [Feb 15] of Smirnov suggests the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office sat on the FD-1023 for nearly three years, until after Grassley released a copy to the public. Instead, Weiss’s office offered Hunter Biden a sweetheart plea agreement, which fell apart only because the federal judge assigned to the case inquired into the strange arrangement that appeared to give Hunter Biden blanket immunity in a pretrial diversion agreement — something she had never seen before.
Special Counsel Weiss clearly knows how bad this looks because, in the indictment, he tried to spin the assessment into the FD-1023 as being closed out by the Pittsburgh FBI office, implying that is why his office did not conduct any further investigative steps.
[…]
“By August 2020, FBI Pittsburgh concluded that all reasonable steps had been completed regarding the Defendant’s allegations and that their assessment, 58A-PG-3250958, should be closed,” Weiss wrote. “On August 12, 2020, FBI Pittsburgh was informed that the then-FBI Deputy Director and then-Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States concurred that it should be closed.”
However, as former Attorney General Barr has made clear numerous times, the Pittsburgh office was merely charged with screening the evidence, and the investigation into the FD-1023 “wasn’t closed down.”
“On the contrary,” Barr stressed, “it was sent to Delaware for further investigation.”
No further investigation occurred, however. That alone should justify Weiss’s removal…
Cleveland added that then-Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brady had briefed Weiss about the FD-1023 report leading up to the 2020 election. Brady’s office verified what they could by using the confidential human source (CHS) travel records with notes from his handler. It corroborated the CHS’s claims in the FD-1023. The source, Smirnov, was classified as highly reliable. Regarding the Ukraine allegations, the Pittsburgh office said the information sounded credible and could be, but a further review should be initiated for total confirmation. That never happened.
What was Weiss doing all this time? Oh, that’s right; trying to protect Hunter Biden. The Justice Department is trying to do the same thing with Joe concerning indicting Smirnov. Like the FD-1023 report, they sit on these developments like chits, waiting to cash them in at the behest of their Democratic Party handlers. The FBI manufactured evidence to spy on Trump campaign officials and launched a counterintelligence probe that they knew was based on shoddy, politically biased information in the Steele Dossier, a Clinton campaign-funded opposition research project. Given the latest developments, the fact that the bureau fought tooth and nail against releasing this report is also puzzling. The FBI said they were more or less cagey about this report’s release due to concerns about Mr. Smirnov's safety. Well, that aged well, huh?