When then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ordered an investigation into a possible political process (Accused) to United States President Joe Biden pointed out that a “trusted FBI informant” had “alleged bribery to the Biden family.” Last week it became known that the informant was Alexander Smirnov, 43, and that what he said was a lie. The prosecutor accuses him of perjury and fabrication of evidence for political reasons. Despite the gap in the evidence against the president, Republicans are not giving up. They will continue to harass the president and his son Hunter Biden for as long as they believe it serves their interests.
The FD-1023 is a form used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to collect information from a confidential human source. At the United States Capitol, there has been constant talk for months about a specific FD-1023, a four-page form. In it, a source, now known as Smirnov, told the FBI that Joe Biden and his son Hunter received five million dollars in commissions in 2015 or 2016 from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, paid by the co -founder of the Mykola company. Zlochevsky.
The interview with this source took place as part of an ongoing investigation into complaints filed in 2020 by Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for then-President Donald Trump. The Republican wanted to undermine the prestige of his likely rival in that year’s presidential election. There was nothing to support the credibility of these complaints and when Giuliani himself found direct testimony that contradicted them, he asked to “bury” them.
Paradoxically, the Republican obsession with Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine and how his father may have benefited from them led to the first Accused of Trump for his pressure on the government of Volodymyr Zelensky, then unknown, to investigate and incriminate the Bidens, threatening to withdraw aid to the country otherwise.
The FBI itself had tried to clarify that Collecting information from a source on a form does not validate it or establish credibility. Despite this, Biden’s rivals have insisted on this document FD-1023 again and again. Smirnov also claimed to have text messages and up to 17 recordings, which made the Republicans salivate.
The obsession with impeachment
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Many members of Congress from Trump’s party are obsessed with subjecting Biden to a Accused. They do not forgive that the previous president was politically impeached twice. Since winning a majority in the House of Representatives more than a year ago, they have been constantly searching for evidence to accuse Biden of corruption. They saw the president’s weakness in his son, Hunter Biden.
Obviously, they couldn’t blame the father for his son’s addictions, tax and legal problems (he is charged in two different cases), so it was a matter of proving that Joe Biden benefited from Hunter’s foreign businesses, as they have tried it. to be done for years, but now with the power of the majority of the lower house. This is despite the fact that they found no significant evidence against the president and that the acts under investigation date back to before he held his current position.
Smirnov’s perjury indictment undermines corruption charges against Biden and further weakens the Republican case. “Special Counsel David Weiss (who was appointed by former President Donald Trump) showed how key evidence at the heart of the investigation into Accused of the House Republicans is based on a lie,” said the Democratic congressman. Jamie Raskin, in a press release. “Special Prosecutor Weiss’ investigation is just the latest to debunk the Ukraine-Burma conspiracy theory that is at the heart of this fraudulent investigation into Accused”, he added.
Biden himself said this Friday at the White House that the investigation “should be abandoned.” “This has been a shameful business from the beginning,” he added.
Republicans, however, now say that the famous shape was not so important. “We have more than 30 million reasons to pursue this investigation and none of those reasons are based on FBI corruption or an informant. “Bank statements don’t lie” » tweeted Republican congressman James Comer. The bank statements he was referring to appear to be another false, or at least misleading, piece of evidence.
After requests and subpoenas, Republicans found a $200,000 check from James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, addressed to the president and made a big deal about it, but without specifying that it was the repayment of a loan and hiding that there had been a transfer from the president to his brother of the same amount just two months earlier. These were also transactions from 2018, when Biden was neither vice president nor president, carried out transparently, without the slightest intention to hide them and without any indication of impropriety.
Republicans also found three corporate payments of $1,380 each, also in 2018, from a Hunter Biden company to his father and wanted to make this appear as a way to funnel money from China to the president. In reality, the purchase of a Ford Raptor van was completed in three installments. Joe Biden had requested the credit in his name as a favor to his son.
Like these, almost all new major Republican revelations evaporate as soon as they come to light and are scrutinized. The White House dismantled the accusations and all the investigations could show was that the current president, when he was Barack Obama’s vice president, once said hello on the phone and attended a dinner with Hunter associates or clients.
Evidence seems less important than political impact. Investigating Biden is one way to counter criminal charges against Trump. Republicans have already given signs that they will try to maintain pressure on Biden, expand their investigations to the handling of classified documents (despite the legal exemption) and seek arguments to demand the Accused. It remains to be seen whether they will take this step, but the final decision will depend not so much on the evidence as on whether Republicans believe they have a majority in favor of this measure (moderates could take their distances) and what they think of the consequences. will be in an election year.
The investigation continues and next week one of its highlights will arrive. After several scuffles, disagreements and some staging, Hunter Biden was summoned to testify behind closed doors in Congress on February 28.
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