Key Republican source accused of lying about the Bidens pleads guilty

It’s easy to forget why exactly many House Republicans were talking about trying to impeach President Joe Biden earlier this year, but the strange crusade was based on a bizarre accusation: The Democrat was, GOP officials claimed, the beneficiary of a strange bribery scheme in the Ukraine.

The story never really made sense, but several Republicans in Congress still took the claims seriously — and when asked to justify their efforts, they pointed to an informant who alerted the FBI to the bribery allegations.

What happened to this informant? I’m glad you asked. The New York Times reported:

The serious problems began in February, when Smirnov was charged with providing the FBI with “false derogatory information” about Biden and his son. The allegations stemmed from the special counsel investigation led by David Weiss, a Trump-appointed prosecutor.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes reported on the developments shortly after the indictment was announced, describing it as “the most spectacular embarrassment imaginable” for Republicans who had targeted the president, and it’s worth understanding why.

For Biden’s GOP critics – on and off Capitol Hill – Smirnov’s claims were basic. He belonged to the party star witness. Sean Hannity’s Fox News show aired this whistleblower’s claims at least 85 separate segments last year. The Republicans’ entire “bribery” conspiracy theory was based on the claims of one man – who was accused of lying to the FBI about the Bidens.

Making matters worse, shortly after his indictment, the GOP’s anti-Biden witness admitted to prosecutors that some of the false information he spread came from “officials linked to Russian intelligence.”

Ten months later, Smirnov pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges, according to recent court records.

I appreciate the fact that Smirnov isn’t exactly a household name and this story probably won’t appear on the front pages of many newspapers, but the developments represent a stunning fiasco for some prominent Republican lawmakers.

For example, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan is on the record declare publicly that he relied largely on Smirnov’s claims in his pursuit of Biden. The Ohio Republican specifically told Fox News in January that the allegations made by Smirnow were “at the heart” of the Republican Party’s case against the president.

Representative James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, expressed similar sentiments: declared last year that Smirnov’s allegations were “a very crucial part of our investigation.”

At least one House Republican acknowledged that the party had been warned not to take these unconfirmed anti-Biden allegations seriously, but Jordan and Comer, among others, ignored the advice and ran on the claims that have since collapsed.

The real “scandal” in the Republican impeachment trial is not what Joe Biden did, but what his accusers did.

This post updates our relevant previous reporting.