Dem
51
GOP
49
And now, a story that is getting WAY less attention than we think it should. Is it because the news broke over the weekend? Because the media really does prefer the "more bad news for Biden" narrative? Something else? We don't know.
In any event, recall that the key witness in the "Biden crime family" story is Alexander Smirnov. He is the former FBI informant who reported that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden both received $5 million bribes from the now-defunct Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings Limited. The ostensible purpose of the bribes was to purchase influence in the Obama administration.
The story did not pass the smell test in any way, shape or form. There's no paper trail, first of all. There are no other witnesses who have corroborated the story. It would also be very odd for a VP to take that kind of kickback, since there are so many prying eyes out there, and since a former president or VP can make that kind of scratch with no trouble giving speeches and serving on corporate boards once they are done with public office.
And now, it turns out that Smirnov's contacts with Burisma actually took place in 2017 and afterward. It is pretty stupid to try to purchase influence by compromising a VP, of all people, unless your goal is to influence the precise temperature of that bucket of warm pi**. It is even more stupid to try to purchase influence by compromising someone who is not even in office anymore. It's plausible that the people who ran Burisma are corrupt, but they certainly aren't morons.
The FBI, of course, is paid to notice things like this. They had already rejected Smirnov's story as the fantastical fictions of a hyper-partisan actor. But now, the DoJ has gone further and gotten an indictment of Smirnov. He faces up to 25 years as a special guest of Uncle Sam.
A year ago, Republicans in both the House and the Senate (in particular, Rep. James Comer, R-KY, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA) were loudly proclaiming that Smirnov's testimony was essential to making the case against the Biden family, and that is why the public needed to know everything. Readers will recall all the hand-wringing about an FD-1023 form; well, the FD-1023 in question was the one produced when Smirnov told his tale to the feds. Now, of course, Comer and Grassley say that Smirnov was only a small piece of the picture, and that what's really important is the "large record of evidence" (Comer's words).
Uh, huh. We suppose it's not impossible that House Republicans will still try to impeach Biden, since they impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without any evidence. However, the Biden impeachment was already a much harder sell, even within the House Republican Conference. And now that the star witness has gone counterfeit? Hard to see how the GOP members who were already leery do not become more so, especially when they ponder the potential of a Senate trial where the prosecution has nothing but smoke and mirrors. So, we tend to assume that the Biden impeachment is now a dead letter, and that folks like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are going to have to content themselves with going after Mayorkas. (Z)