Raskin: Biden impeachment ‘essentially ended’ with Smirnov bombshell

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said Wednesday that the Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden has been demolished by new revelations that Russia might have played a role in drumming up false allegations about the president’s finances. 

“The impeachment investigation essentially ended yesterday, in substance if not in form, with the explosive revelation that Mr. Smirnov’s allegations about Ukrainian Burisma payments to Joe Biden were concocted along with Russian intelligence agents,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters in Washington.

Republicans have leaned heavily on the declarations of Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant who alleged that Biden and his son, Hunter, both received $5 million in dubious payments from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden sat. 

Smirnov was arrested last week and charged with lying to the FBI about those allegations. And on Tuesday the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Smirnov told the agency that “officials associated with Russian intelligence” were involved in devising the false claims. 

The news has dealt a blow to Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry, some of whom have characterized Smirnov’s initial allegations of influence peddling as a form of a “smoking gun” in the case against Biden. 

Democrats say the development should prompt GOP leaders to end the investigation altogether. 

“It appears like the whole thing is not only, obviously, false and fraudulent, but a product of Russian disinformation and propaganda,” Raskin said. “And that’s been the motor force behind this investigation for more than a year.”

The comments came during Wednesday’s deposition of Biden’s brother, James Biden, whose business dealings have also come under the scrutiny of GOP impeachment investigators, who had subpoenaed his testimony last November. 

In his written testimony, James Biden denied that his powerful brother had any influence over — or benefited from — his business ventures. And Raskin said Republicans offered no new evidence during Wednesday’s proceedings to suggest otherwise. 

“He 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,” Raskin said. “That has been well established, time and time again. And nothing that we’ve heard so far contradicts that in any way.” 

Republicans, though, quickly rejected the idea of shutting down the investigation. 

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who also participated in Wednesday’s deposition, said the DOJ’s new Smirnov filing is immaterial to his party’s investigation. 

“It doesn’t change the fundamental facts,” he told reporters. 

Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.), a former prosecutor, delivered a similar message, saying Republicans have an “enormous amount of circumstantial evidence” that the president benefited financially from his family’s business dealings. 

“I’m a member of Congress, I’ve been a prosecutor for five years, and I don’t trust the criminal justice system,” Timmons said. “I don’t trust New York judges, I don’t trust the prosecutors in Georgia. I don’t trust the DOJ.” 

Raskin countered that Republicans, in their defense of former President Trump, have painted themselves in a corner, forced to downplay Russian wrongdoing around the globe — to include the war in Ukraine and Moscow’s long-running interference in U.S. elections — simply to appease the Republican standard-bearer. 

“My colleagues, when confronted with this evidence, just say: ‘Russia hoax, Russia hoax,’” Raskin said. “What part of it is the hoax? Is it the war in Ukraine? Is it the death of [Alexei Navalny]? What is hoax-like about it? 

“The hoax is that there’s a Russian hoax.”