Senate Republicans Raise Some Important Questions About the DOJ Indictment Against Alexander Smirnov
Republican Senators Chuck Grassley (R-ID) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) are seeking answers from the FBI regarding the Justice Department’s indictment against former informant Alexander Smirnov, who originally brought to light allegations that President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, received bribes from a Ukrainian energy company in exchange for favors.
The senators sent a letter to officials in the Justice Department demanding that they allow Congress to interview some of the agents who worked with Smirnov, according to a Fox News Digital exclusive.
Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson are demanding the FBI make Alexander Smirnov’s handling agent and his superiors available for interviews as they investigate what steps the bureau and the Justice Department took to investigate the now-infamous FD-1023 form alleging a criminal bribery scheme involving Joe Biden and Ukraine.
Fox News Digital obtained a letter Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Special Counsel David Weiss late Tuesday.
“Since October 13, 2022, Congress has requested from the Justice Department and FBI information and records relating to the FD-1023 to better understand what steps, if any, the Justice Department took to investigate the document,” Grassley and Johnson wrote.
In February, the indictment against Smirnov was announced after he was arrested at an airport in Las Vegas. The authorities claim that the former informant fabricated the bribery scandal.
In essence, the Justice Department is accusing Smirnov of falsely describing phone calls in which a Burisma executive said he was compelled to pay Joe and Hunter in exchange for favors.
The Defendant also reported two purported phone calls between himself and Burisma Official 1 wherein Burisma Official 1 stated that he had been forced to pay Public Official 1 and Businessperson 1 and that it would take investigators 10 years to find records of illicit payments to Public Official 1.
As alleged herein, the events the Defendant first reported to the Handler in June 2020 were fabrications. In truth and fact, the Defendant had contact with executives from Burisma in 2017, after the end of the Obama-Biden Administration and after the thenUkrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016, in other words, when Public Official 1 had no ability to influence U.S. policy and when the Prosecutor General was no longer in office. In short, the Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy.
Smirnov reached out to Grassley in 2022 to inform him about the FD-1023 document, which detailed the alleged bribery scheme.
The FD-1023 document includes Smirnov’s claims that Burisma executives paid $5 million to Joe Biden and $5 million to Hunter Biden, while Joe Biden was still in office as vice president. Smirnov also claims that the Bidens were paid so that Joe Biden could help to quash criminal investigation into Burisma being conducted by then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
The letter notes that the indictment “leaves many questions unanswered,” which includes,
“how the Justice Department and FBI could use this Confidential Human Source for approximately 14 years, pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars, use this information in investigations and prosecutions, and the ultimately determine he’s a liar.”
That particular question will likely play an important role in the trial and public opinion about the bribery scandal. We'll keep you posted.
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