House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) went after the FBI on Tuesday, in the wake of the arrest and charging of an informant central to the GOP’s allegations against the president.
Comer said that everything that he’s had “to do with the FBI has been very suspicious” throughout House Republicans’ probe into President Biden.
“The trust level that I have with the FBI is zero, Maria,” Comer said in an interview on “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business with anchor Maria Bartiromo.
Comer also said all he and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) knew about the informant was that FBI Director Christopher Wray had said the informant “was one of their most trusted, highest paid, in the bureau.“
“They had successfully used this informant to prosecute criminals in the past, and that he had been with the bureau over a decade,” Comer continued.
The informant, Alexander Smirnov, has been important in House Republicans’ allegations that Biden accepted a bribe. Republican lawmakers have often noted conversations that Smirnov had with the FBI about the head of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma telling him that he paid both Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, $5 million.
“As alleged in the indictment, the events that Smirnov first reported to the FBI Agent in June 2020 were fabrications,” the Justice Department said in a press release on the grand jury indictment.
“The indictment alleges that the defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1 after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his presidential candidacy,” it added, referring to President Biden.
Smirnov was arrested a little under two weeks ago at the Las Vegas airport. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.