The Department of Justice's (DOJ) indictment of an FBI informant who shared information about an alleged bribery scheme involving Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, and a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma raises more questions than answers. is causing.
Alexander Smirnov, Confidential Human Source (CHS) Suspect In 2020, Burisma executives allegedly paid then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each and lied to FBI agents in order to use political influence to protect the company's interests. according to In an indictment released Thursday by Special Counsel David Weiss and his team. Regardless of whether or not Smirnov lied to the FBI, as the Justice Department alleges, the timing of the indictment and the allegation that Smirnov was not, after all, a reliable CHS, is that federal investigators believe he provided This raises questions about how the information has been handled.
According to the indictment, Smirnov only had contact with Burisma executives in 2017, after Biden's term as vice president ended and the Ukrainian investigator investigating Burisma lost his job. It is claimed that the If this were true, it would not have been possible for Smirnov to discuss the Bidens with Burisma executives in 2015 and 2016, as he told the FBI in June 2020.
The FBI recorded the claims made by Mr. Smirnov in 2020 on form FD-1023. This is a document compiled by FBI agents to summarize information provided by CHS. Form FD-1023 does not determine the accuracy of the information provided. It simply serves as a summary of the informant's claims. according to Former FBI Special Agents Association. (Related article: “Absurd and childish'': Democrats slam former Hunter Biden colleague in private conference)
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Why didn't Mr. Weiss conduct an interview until after Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley announced FD-1023?
FD-1023 first entered the public domain after a whistleblower passed it on to Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who released it on July 20, 2023. FBI agents did not interview Smirnov's representatives for more than a month after the incident. that date, according to To the Federalist.
The FBI also did not interview Mr. Smirnov about FD-1023 until September 27, 2023, according to the indictment. Before the whistleblower leaked FD-1023 to Grassley, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had accused the FBI of obstructing efforts to obtain the files.
“Many people at the Justice Department and on Capitol Hill were abuzz with similar explosive claims by 'credible' FBI source Christopher Steele in 2016. Therefore, the lack of curiosity about Smirnov's claims is an internal This is in stark contrast to the warnings to Congress that until charges were filed, they remained hidden in FBI files and virtually ignored.'' Jason Stanley, former chief investigative adviser, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Had the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware done their job properly, Mr. Smirnov would have been re-examined sooner and his claims would have been scrutinized.”
Prior to becoming special counsel, Mr. Weiss served as U.S. attorney for Delaware.Scott Brady, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Said The House Judiciary Committee revealed in October 2023 that then-U.S. Attorney Weiss was aware of the nature of the allegations contained in FD-1023 in 2020. A few years earlier, the Justice Department offered Hunter Biden a “sweetheart” plea deal on tax and gun charges.
Brady told lawmakers in October 2023 testimony that he believed the allegations contained in FD-1023 were sufficiently credible to warrant further investigation, according to a transcript of the interview.
“The recently released transcript of former U.S. Attorney Scott Brady's House testimony makes clear that U.S. Attorney Weiss was informed of the seriousness of the allegations,” said Empower Oversight President and Shapley's attorney. Tristan Leavitt told DCNF. “It is extremely disturbing that Weiss' office failed to investigate the allegations until an IRS whistleblower came forward and Senator Grassley released the 1023 number that he had obtained from another whistleblower. The question arises as to what Weiss knows about the veracity of Hunter Biden's allegations before and after his plea deal fell through.”
Why weren't claims about FD-1023's explosives investigated sooner?
The FBI has FD-1023 and claims Burisma invited Hunter Biden to the company's board of directors “for its own protection.” [Burisma]According to that text, in June 2020, through his father, from all sorts of problems.
Given the inflammatory nature of the claims made in FD-1023, it will take time for the FBI and other federal investigators to get to the bottom of the underlying claims and conclude that they are likely false. It is unclear why it took so long. Moreover, even if the FBI and other investigators had doubts that Mr. Smirnov was telling the truth, why would he be relevant, given that Mr. Smirnov was a former vice president and effectively indicted the then-presidential candidate? It is also unclear why the agency waited so long to independently verify or debunk his claims. Bribes from foreign oligarchies to influence American policy in Ukraine.
How does the FBI determine if CHS is trustworthy?
Mr. Brady said the FBI had long considered Mr. Smirnov to be a “very reliable” CHS. According to The Federalist, the FBI found the information Mr. Smirnov provided so reliable and valuable that the government gave him freedom to engage in other criminal activities in exchange for his services. That's what it means.
“The FBI has a long history of mismanaging human sources, dating back to the Boston FBI scandal, where agents even turned a blind eye to sources who committed murder. We are secretly paying too many taxpayers to human sources with far too little oversight,” Stanley told DCNF. “Every time a problem arises, the FBI writes new rules and assures the public that it has been fixed, but no one actually demands true independent scrutiny and accountability. Without major reforms, these problems are likely to worsen, especially in high-profile and politically sensitive cases.”
What does this indictment mean for the broader investigation into Joe Biden?
Democrats quickly touted Weiss's indictment and the allegations as evidence that a congressional investigation into Joe Biden's possible involvement in his son's business should be halted. Joe Biden said in a press conference on Friday that the investigation into his own conduct was an “outrageous endeavor” and “should be stopped.”
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said Thursday night that “Special Counsel Weiss' investigation debunks the Ukraine-Burisma conspiracy theory at the center of this fraudulent impeachment inquiry.'' “This is the latest to expose this.” statement. “It is an undeniable fact that the Republican Party's claims against President Biden are always a mass of lies based on conspiracy theories, and I am formally appealing to the Chairman.” [of the House Mike] johnson, [House Oversight and Accountability Committee] chairman [James] Comer and House Republicans should stop promoting this nonsense and end the doomed impeachment inquiry. ”
Regardless of whether Weiss's claim that Smirnov lied to the FBI is correct, the investigation into Joe Biden and his son is based on much more circumstantial evidence than FD-1023. Thursday's indictment concerns the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, testimony from several of Hunter Biden's former business associates, a web of shell companies and wire transfers uncovered by congressional investigators, or his son's business dealings. It does not negate the scope of Joe Biden's potential involvement. There is also a lot of interest from countries such as China, Romania, and Kazakhstan.
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