It’s beautiful when House Republicans wind up with egg all over their collective faces, and it looks like that’s happening again. When you consider how they have treated President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, it just couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people. They have practically crucified Hunter, placing every aspect of his life under the microscope. Especially Rep. Marjorie Greene, who put his nude photos on blast.
But now, the tide is turning. And frankly, it’s what the House GOP gets for being so rabid about the younger Biden and his dad.
Their allegations about President Biden taking a bribe are unraveling, now that their key informant Alexander Smirnov has been indicted, having been charged with making false statements to the FBI, The Hill reports. Smirnov had been the darling of GOP lawmakers who regularly pointed to him when he served as their confidential source. That led to the FBI parroting his anonymous claim that the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, told him that he had paid both Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each.
According to The New Civil Rights Movement, on Thursday, Special Counsel David Weiss filed a 37-page indictment charging Smirnov with two felony counts, alleging he gave federal investigators “false derogatory information” about President Biden and his son during 2020’s presidential election. The indictment calls the informant’s claims about the Bidens and the Ukrainian company a “fabrication.”
“alexander smirnov, 43, who disliked president joe biden, was arrested in las vegas after returning from a trip overseas, according to the justice department,” according to an NBC NEWS report.
Now here’s another fun part: Weiss was appointed as a U.S. Attorney by then-President Donald Trump in 2018.
Republicans did everything they could to trip up former President Barack Obama. They were extremely contentious with him, especially over Obamacare and they have pulled this same trick with Biden so it’s nice to see them fall flat on their faces.
Rolling Stone described Smirnov as “the GOP’s key Hunter Biden witness,” and also noted his claims were a talking point for Republicans, who used them “to bolster allegations of a corrupt briber scheme involving Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.”
“smirnov allegedly told the fbi — falsely — that officials with burisma, the ukrainian energy company that hunter biden worked for, had told him they hired hunter biden because he would ‘protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.’ smirnove allegedly told the fbi — again, falsely — that burisma officials had told him they paid hunter biden and joe biden $5 million and that it would take investigators 10 years to find the illicit payments to joe biden.”
The indictment reads “The Defendant’s 2020 story was a fabrication. The Defendant’s claim that ‘in late 2015/2016 during the Obama/Biden Administration’ he first met with Burisma Official 2 and that at that meeting Burisma Official 2 told him that they hired Businessperson 1 to ‘protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems’ was false, as he knew.'”
I love the smell of Republican desperation in the morning, to paraphrase Apocalypse Now. I know Hunter Biden has had his share of problems and he has been treated horribly by Republicans. At least 99 percent of that horrible treatment was undeserved, especially when you consider that their idol, former President Donald Trump appears to be the king of corruption. There are a scant few Republicans who have called him out for the things he’s done but the harm that Trump has caused this country is far worse than anything Hunter Biden could do.
And I love what Media Matters for America’s Matthew Gertz has done here, excoriating Sean Hannity for the fool that he is.
Sean Hannity's Fox News show ran with this informant's claims in at least 85 separate segments last year, including 28 monologues. He said they proved Joe Biden engaged in "public corruption on a scale this country has never seen before.” https://t.co/5ziUvNOwt4 https://t.co/tzBXuJd1p4
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 15, 2024
Can we have a few more Matthew Gertzes and considerably fewer Sean Hannitys?
Gracias.
“Can we have a few more Matthew Gertzes and considerably fewer Sean Hannitys?”
Even one Sean Hannity (how many days–years–now has it been since he “volunteered” to be waterboarded to show it wasn’t that bad?) is two Sean Hannitys too many.
I agree. Hannity is willfully ignorant and completely obnoxious.