J. Scott Applewhite/AP
- Special counsel David Weiss blew through one of the key pieces of evidence House Republicans have held against Biden.
- Weiss alleges that a former FBI informant lied to the bureau when he accused a Ukrainian company of bribing Biden.
- This is far from the only setback Republicans have sustained, but Trump remains undeterred.
A stunning indictment has undermined one of the key pieces of evidence some GOP lawmakers have cited in their impeachment push against President Joe Biden.
Special counsel David Weiss indictment that was unsealed on Thursday charges an ex-FBI informant for lying to the bureau about a Ukrainian company paying Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5 million each roughly around the end of the Obama administration.
Prosecutors say Alexander Smirnov, the informant in question, only had limited dealings with the energy company and only raised concerns about wrongdoing "after expressing bias" against Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. Top House Republicans have cited the previously unknown informant's allegations for months as evidence for their views about the "Biden crime family."
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer argued that the investigation into the Biden family does not center on Smirnov's allegations, though Comer has repeatedly touted the previously unverified findings after Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, publicly released the FBI's summary of the interview last summer. The energy company in question, Burisma, has long been at the heart of allegations about Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings and was at the center of then-President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.
"To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI's FD-1023. It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family's business dealings," Comer said in a statement to CNN.
Asked about the indictment on Friday, Biden said it was time for the inquiry to end.
"He is lying," Biden told reporters about Smirnov. "It should be dropped and it has just been an outrageous effort from the beginning."
Republicans were already struggling before this week.
The bombshell charges are far from the only thing undermining the GOP's push to make Biden just the fourth president to be impeached in American history.
Earlier in the week, the GOP failed to hold onto recently expelled former Congressman George Santos' seat in a special New York congressional election. For now, Republicans can only afford to lose just two votes as the GOP grapples with one of the narrowest majorities in history. Speaker Mike Johnson has struggled to legislate when faced with such small margins.
Even impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas became a monthlong slog that included an embarrassing failed floor vote after the GOP failed to anticipate that a Democratic lawmaker could be rushed from the hospital to the House floor. Republicans impeached Mayorkas Tuesday, but had they waited until former Rep. Tom Suozzi, who won Santos' old seat, was sworn in, they would have failed.
Some Republicans were already warning that their Biden impeachment push was going nowhere even before the latest setbacks.
"You'd be hard pressed to say it's going well," an unnamed GOP source previously told CNN of the investigation. The outlet reported that roughly 20 Republicans were not convinced there was sufficient evidence to impeach Biden.
Republicans were also able to maneuver around some reluctant lawmakers as they pushed the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the floor. It will be more difficult for them to do so this time.
Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, defied his party on the Mayorkas vote after warning for months that he didn't think the evidence was there. Buck ultimately sided with his party in voting to formalize the sprawling probe into Biden. Still, Buck, who will retire at the end of this Congress, has repeatedly said there is no direct evidence tying the president to whatever Hunter Biden may have done.
The inquiry's biggest supporter is only ramping up his pressure.
Former President Donald Trump is undeterred. Twice this week, he has prodded Republicans to them to move forward. Some conservative lawmakers have been outspoken about how impeaching Biden is a way to try to benefit the former president's 2024 campaign.
"Congress ought to impeach crooked Joe Biden for attacking his political opponent by weaponizing the DOJ, the FBI, and even the local DAs and attorney generals against his political opponent," Trump said during a rally in South Carolina. "They ought to impeach him because that is the most undemocratic thing that you can do. This happens in certain countries but never happened in our country."
from All Content from Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/house-republicans-biden-impeachment-fbi-indictment-hunter-bribes-2024-2
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