House Republicans deleted a reference to an FBI informant once central to their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden after the person was indicted by the Justice Department last week for making false statements.
In an interview request sent to former State Department official Amos Hochstein on Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) initially referenced previous testimony from discredited FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. However, that information was later omitted, and the letter was sent a second time, according to copies reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
An impeachment inquiry aide confirmed the two versions of the letter to the Washington Examiner, noting the request was drafted prior to the DOJ’s indictment of Smirnov and that the paragraph containing his testimony was inadvertently left in. The letter was then updated, and the request still stands, the aide said.
The letter comes after the DOJ indicted Smirnov on Thursday on charges of making a false statement to federal authorities and creating a false and fictitious record. Department officials cited information Smirnov gave to the FBI in 2020 that falsely claimed Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
Smirnov also told the FBI that Burisma officials paid Hunter Biden $5 million while his father was still vice president so that Hunter Biden would “take care of all those issues through his dad,” according to charging documents. The “issues” referred to a criminal investigation into the energy company conducted at the time by the then-Ukrainian prosecutor general.
The revelation that Smirnov’s statements were false prompted immediate backlash from Democrats and Biden allies who accused Republicans of opening an impeachment inquiry solely based on claims that have now been proven false. However, GOP leaders pushed back, arguing the inquiry “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 last week.
Smirnov’s claims first came into the public eye last May after Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced the discovery of an FD-1023 form showing “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” An FD-1023 is an investigative form the FBI uses to record information from confidential human sources, often referenced as a CHS by investigators.
The 2020 FD-1023 form contained explosive allegations that Joe and Hunter Biden accepted $5 million each in bribes so that the then-vice president would use his authority to protect the Ukrainian energy company in which his son held a lucrative board position. The source was not identified, but Republicans were told the informant was highly credible and had been relied on for several DOJ investigations in the past.
Now, his indictment has raised questions among House Republicans about what steps were taken to verify the informant’s claims, according to an impeachment inquiry aide.
The letter comes as Republicans prepare to hear from James Biden and Hunter Biden in closed-door depositions this month as part of their monthslong inquiry into whether the president abused his power while vice president. James Biden is scheduled to testify on Wednesday, with Hunter Biden to follow next week.
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The inquiry is looking into three main things, all of which relate to Hunter Biden: whether Joe Biden improperly used his position of power to enrich himself and his family, whether he used his influence to pressure the Department of Justice to help his son avoid criminal charges, and how involved he was in his family’s foreign business dealings.
Up until this point, the Oversight and Judiciary committees have failed to uncover definitive evidence tying Joe Biden to criminal activity or any misconduct that constitutes a high crime or misdemeanor. Instead, Democrats and their staffers have accused Republicans of wasting money and resources on an investigation they say is politically motivated.
