They know these non-stop show trials reflect badly on them, both the individual members & the GOP as a whole (not to mention wasting time & resources that could be of far better use elsewhere, because the GOP hasn’t cared about anything outside their own clan for at least fifty years)… but it feels so good in the moment!
Another GOP Biden ‘informant.’ Another indictment and link to Russia.https://t.co/Xyc8PvxVI6
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) February 22, 2024
… This isn’t even the first time we’ve learned that a person has been indicted after the GOP cited his claims. Nor is it the first time a person has been linked to Russian intelligence after the GOP leaned on their version of events.
The cast of characters Republicans have sought out to substantiate President Biden’s purported corruption over the years has come to include half a dozen convicted and accused criminals, as well as multiple people the U.S. government has linked to Russia, corruption and subverting American democracy.
The most recent example is Alexander Smirnov, whom the government said last week had invented the claim that Biden and his son Hunter took $5 million bribes. That allegation was promoted far and wide by Republicans, many of whom treated it as fact.
The government then said this week that Smirnov has “extensive foreign ties, including, most troublingly and by his own account, contact with foreign intelligence services, including Russian intelligence agencies, and has had such contacts recently.”
The news comes seven months after the indictment of another GOP source was unsealed. Republicans had conspiratorially suggested that a key witness who claimed to have damaging information about Hunter Biden had mysteriously gone missing. It turned out the witness was Gal Luft, who the government said had skipped bail after his indictment for alleged arms trafficking and foreign lobbying violations was handed down months earlier…
Rooting out corruption sometimes involves dealing with unsavory characters. Some of the legal actions against Trump, for instance, have leaned on the testimony of his convicted former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.
But thus far, Republicans have very little actual evidence against the Bidens to show for their efforts. And when your most-touted claim is apparently falling apart in spectacular fashion, against the backdrop of the aforementioned, it sure risks looking like you’re desperate for anything to grab hold of — no matter where it comes from.
COMER IN MAY: This is a very crucial piece of our investigation
COMER NOW: He wasn’t an important part of our investigation https://t.co/b2ThXIlifG pic.twitter.com/itHwsFvKg3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 22, 2024
Open Thread: The GOP Has An Impeachment ProblemPost + Comments (85)