{"id":4883,"date":"2024-02-22T20:28:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T12:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=4883"},"modified":"2024-02-22T20:28:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T12:28:58","slug":"arrest-of-fbi-informant-looms-over-gop-grilling-of-bidens-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=4883","title":{"rendered":"Arrest of FBI informant looms over GOP grilling of Biden\u2019s brother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Republicans intent on grilling President Biden\u2019s brother Wednesday were thrown onto defense over the indictment just days earlier of the FBI informant whose allegations against the president were central to the GOP impeachment inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In more than eight hours behind closed doors, GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee pressed James Biden on the details surrounding years of financial transactions both at home and abroad \u2014 a marathon interrogation with a blockbuster witness designed to advance the Republicans\u2019 allegations of financial wrongdoing by the president and his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But looming large over the day\u2019s proceedings was last week\u2019s arrest of Alexander Smirnov, the FBI informant who provided information central to the GOP\u2019s charges of corruption and influence peddling against the president. The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Smirnov with lying to the FBI by fabricating his claims against the president, including the assertion that Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, each accepted a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian energy company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The storm surrounding Smirnov grew Tuesday with the release of a DOJ filing revealing that Smirnov told the agency he received information about Hunter Biden from \u201cofficials associated with Russian intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Republicans, those developments were poorly timed, lending Democrats new ammunition in their attacks on the impeachment process while forcing GOP leaders to defend the investigation just as they were celebrating the opportunity to grill the president\u2019s brother face-to-face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats quickly aimed their fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe impeachment investigation essentially ended yesterday, in substance if not in form, with the explosive revelation that Mr. Smirnov\u2019s allegations about Ukrainian Burisma payments to Joe Biden were concocted along with Russian intelligence agents,\u201d Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told reporters during a break in Wednesday\u2019s deposition on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt appears like the whole thing is not only, obviously, false and fraudulent, but a product of Russian disinformation and propaganda,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s been the motor force behind this investigation for more than a year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans, however, are downplaying the significance of Smirnov\u2019s arrest, arguing that their case still stands despite the informant\u2019s indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I mean, it is what it is,\u201d Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t change the fundamental facts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose facts, they don\u2019t change regardless of what this confidential human source is saying,\u201d he said of Smirnov after ticking off a number of GOP claims about Hunter Biden and his time on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some have also tried to flip the script on the FBI, questioning why the bureau had employed Smirnov for so long, and why the confidential source had been described by Republicans and Democrats briefed on his allegations as credible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the guy they paid, I think since 2010, so 14 years they\u2019ve been paying this guy, and he\u2019s a trusted source, and now we find out he isn\u2019t,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.), a former prosecutor, offered another reason the Republicans will press ahead with their probe: They simply don\u2019t trust the DOJ to have it right with Smirnov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a member of Congress, I\u2019ve been a prosecutor for five years, and I don\u2019t trust the criminal justice system,\u201d Timmons said. \u201cI don\u2019t trust New York judges. I don\u2019t trust the prosecutors in Georgia. I don\u2019t trust the DOJ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remarkable appearance of the president\u2019s brother on Capitol Hill is just the latest act in the months-long political drama pitting the president, who\u2019s seeking reelection this year, against House Republicans, who\u2019ve launched an impeachment inquiry against him centered on accusations of financial wrongdoing. Hunter Biden is set to testify before the Oversight and Judiciary committees behind closed doors next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans have not produced clear evidence to back those charges. But as they dig deeper into the tangled business history of the president\u2019s brother and son, they claim to be getting closer to implicating the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s [an] enormous amount of circumstantial evidence that shows that Hunter and Jim were selling the brand, and Joe Biden was profiting from it financially. So we\u2019re going to find out if that\u2019s true,\u201d Timmons said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GOP\u2019s interest in James Biden is centered on two checks he wrote to Joe Biden when the elder brother was not serving in public office. Republicans have suggested the exchanges are evidence that the Bidens were involved in a bribery scheme, dismissing the \u201cloan repayment\u201d message on the checks\u2019 memo lines as proof of nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just write \u2018loan repayment\u2019 on a check and make it fine,\u201d Timmons said. \u201cSo we\u2019re going to figure out what exactly the loan was for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first check \u2014 worth $200,000 \u2014 was written by James Biden after he received a loan from Americore Health, as an unrelated loan repayment. James Biden allegedly told the health care company that his name could \u201copen doors\u201d in the Middle East, but he did not help in the end. The loan payment does not have any connections to foreign work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other check \u2014 priced at $40,000 \u2014 was written after Hunter Biden landed a deal with the Chinese energy company CEFC, and Hunter wired money to James Biden. The president\u2019s brother then used some of those funds to repay Joe Biden. Republicans have cited the check as part of their argument that the president received money that was laundered from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Biden hit back at the accusations surrounding the payments Wednesday, explaining in his opening statement that he solicited loans from family members, friends, business partners or financial institutions during the \u201cnumber of occasions\u201d when his financial obligations exceeded funds available to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were short-term loans that I received from Joe when he was a private citizen, and I repaid them within weeks,\u201d James Biden said in his opening remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe had no information at all about the source of the funds I used to repay him,\u201d the younger Biden continued. \u201cThe complete explanation is that Joe lent me money, and I repaid him as soon as I had the funds to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Biden also testified that his brother \u201cplayed no role, was not involved with, and received no benefits from\u201d his work with Americore and CEFC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those arguments have been enough to satisfy President Biden\u2019s Democratic allies, who have accused Republicans of conducting a political witch hunt for the sole purpose of damaging the president\u2019s reelection chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was not involved in any way, and he was not receiving any money from them. He was not a business partner, or a business associate,\u201d Raskin said. \u201cThat has been well established, time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans, however, aren\u2019t ready to take the president\u2019s brother at his word, and several GOP lawmakers emerged from Wednesday\u2019s testimony to say that Biden, under questioning, contradicted parts of his opening statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said James Biden told lawmakers that he was unaware that CEFC, which directed millions of dollars into accounts controlled by the Bidens, had ties to Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo believe James Biden is to believe that a major Chinese energy company was somehow not connected to the Chinese government,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t pass the straight-face test.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats aren\u2019t quite defending the business practices of James and Hunter Biden, but they\u2019re quick to point out that Republicans have produced no concrete evidence that the president has benefited directly from the financial dealings of his family. That\u2019s the charge at the core of the GOP\u2019s impeachment investigation \u2014 and the narrative that was undercut by Smirnov\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smirnov is not the only setback Republicans have encountered this year as they charge ahead with their impeachment probe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, two of Hunter Biden\u2019s business partners \u2014 Rob Walker and Eric Schwerin \u2014 testified privately before the Oversight Committee. Both of them said forcefully that President Biden had no hand in his son\u2019s business ventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They did, however, land a significant victory last month, when Hunter Biden agreed to testify behind closed doors as part of the GOP\u2019s impeachment inquiry. Confirmation of the deposition \u2014 which is set for Feb. 28 \u2014 came after a months-long battle between Hunter Biden\u2019s team and Republicans on the Oversight and Judiciary committees, who have said the younger Biden\u2019s testimony is crucial to the GOP\u2019s case against the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While James Biden\u2019s transcribed interview was the main focus Wednesday, Republicans were already looking ahead to next week\u2019s long-awaited deposition with Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans intent on grilling President Biden\u2019s brother Wednesday were thrown onto defense over the indictment just days earlier of the FBI informant whose allegations against the president were central to the GOP impeachment inquiry. In more than eight hours behind closed doors, GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee pressed James Biden on the details […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"\nArrest of FBI informant looms over GOP grilling of Biden\u2019s brother - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=4883\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arrest of FBI informant looms over GOP grilling of Biden\u2019s brother - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Republicans intent on grilling President Biden\u2019s brother Wednesday were thrown onto defense over the indictment just days earlier of the FBI informant whose allegations against the president were central to the GOP impeachment inquiry. 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