A CNN analyst has claimed that Alexander Smirnov’s arrest proves that the GOP’s impeachment efforts against President Joe Biden are bunk, but critics allege that the exact opposite is true.
As previously reported, Smirnov is a former FBI informant and whistleblower who’d alleged that President Biden and his son Hunter had each received $5 million in kickbacks from Burisma, the shady Ukrainian energy company where Hunter had worked.
On Thursday he was arrested for allegedly lying to the FBI. Responding to his arrest, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams claimed the GOP’s impeachment case against Biden is now “completely discredited.”
Listen:
“It eviscerates any impeachment effort,” he said. “Any evidence linking current President Biden to wrongdoing was pretty thin to begin with. But if people had it and could come forward with it and substantiate it, by all means, bring it. That’s how law enforcement works.”
“Now, I’m genuinely curious sort of as a citizen, as much as a former Hill staffer and prosecutor, what the folks on the Hill do with it now, because literally your star witness – his testimony has been completely discredited by law enforcement,” he added.
But critics vociferously disagree and argue that Smirnov’s arrest is simply further proof of the Biden administration’s corruption.
Look:
They are celebrating the Biden Administration arresting a whistleblower.
Really commie stuff.
— Mila Joy (@MilaLovesJoe) February 16, 2024
Of course they arrested him. He went against the regime. They’ll threaten his family with made up crimes, he’ll confess to a minor crime and the narrative will be set.
— Nine Foot Couch (@9FootCouch) February 15, 2024
This is to scare whistleblowers from coming forward and to keep the crimes that we all know the Bidens are guilty of from coming out!! This should make every American angry at the 2-tier Justice System! They can commit crimes and get away with it but we better not!!
— Carla Ford (@cford0923) February 16, 2024
So – typical of the way the FBI has been doing things this whole Administration! Arrest whistleblowers, charge them with a crime to diminish and testimony against Joe and/or Hunter Biden! We’ve seen this kind of action hundreds of times so far under Joe Biden
— Darny (@KjarstmK) February 15, 2024
How the hell can they prove he was lying? This will be interesting. It is more like they are putting it out there to make the case against Biden look less credible. Too many lawyers, combing through books, twisting everything and anyone against them, and making it a criminal case
— Hannah Dahlke (@HannahD32090) February 16, 2024
— Robert Kurth (@RobertK_2142) February 15, 2024
This isn’t the first time the administration has targeted whistleblowers.
Last summer, whistleblower Gal Luft was hit with lobbying and sanctions violations after he’d blown the whistle on the Biden family corruption.
“Dr. Gal Luft, a key figure in House Republicans’ investigation of the Biden family’s international influence-peddling, faces federal charges of arms trafficking, operating as an unregistered lobbyist for China, and conspiring to flout US sanctions on Iran,” the New York Post reported.
“Luft has claimed the criminal case is a political hit job meant to stop him from testifying to the House Oversight Committee that the first family received payments from individuals with ties to Chinese military intelligence and that the Bidens had an FBI mole who shared classified information with their benefactors from the China state-controlled energy company CEFC,” according to the Post.
Missing Biden family corruption witness says he’s living in fear as fugitive in undisclosed location https://t.co/2N4cKsMBrZ pic.twitter.com/adOlGfT8XD
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) June 4, 2023
Months later in September, Rep. Matt Gaetz penned a letter to ATF director Steven Dettelbach accusing the agency of committing “retaliation and harassment” against another whistleblower (this one unrelated to the Bidens), Chris Smith of Gulf Coast Gun.
“It has come to my attention that yesterday, September 6, 2023, ATF agents once again aggressively targeted and harassed one of my constituent federal firearms licensees (FFL), Chris Smith of Gulf Coast Gun, this time apparently in violation of federal law,” Gaetz wrote.
“Chris has held an FFL in Florida for years with no issues, and yet the ATF has aggressively audited him without merit and accused him of various clerical errors in an attempt to have his FFL revoked. It is for this reason that Chris testified as a whistleblower before members of Congress,” he added.
Matt Gaetz accuses ATF of ‘retaliation’ and ‘stalking’ of Congressional whistleblower in scathing letter https://t.co/6iVSkgmjaO via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) September 8, 2023
The administration has also been accused of targeting and smearing the IRS whistleblowers who’d exposed how the Bidens were treated differently than other Americans.
The Biden admin continues targeting the IRS whistleblowers who bravely brought this information forward. https://t.co/cphgVyxEYp
— Tracy Beanz (@tracybeanz) August 1, 2023
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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