House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, who is leading an investigation into the Biden family’s finances, is facing calls to resign from liberals and Democratic supporters after the Department of Justice claimed one of its key sources had links with “high level” Russian intelligence operatives.
The allegation was made against Alexander Smirnov, formerly a confidential FBI source, in a court memo filed on Tuesday by the Department of Justice. Smirnov was charged last week with lying to the FBI and manufacturing false records relating to the Biden’s business activities in Ukraine.
Smirnov had been a key source for the Republican controlled Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Biden family, which provided justification for then Speaker Kevin McCarthy to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden in September 2023.
In June 2020, as a “confidential human source,” Smirnov had claimed Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden “$5 million each” in exchange for political favors from the former vice president.
However, according to Tuesday’s Justice Department filing, Smirnov had “extensive and extremely recent” contact with “officials affiliated with Russian intelligence” which formed part of an effort to “spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States,” in an apparent reference to Biden. Referring to Smirnov the filing added: “He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, in response to Tuesday’s filing, Democratic-supporting political strategist Simon Rosenberg said: “Calls for Comer to resign should be cascading across the country tomorrow. He has betrayed the country.”
Just hours earlier, in a message to his more than 148,000 X followers, he wrote: “The most significant thing that’s happened in America in the last decade is Putin’s successful penetration of Trump and the Republican Party.”
On X, political commentator and podcast host Keith Olbermann wrote: “Congressman James Comer needs to resign.”
Congressman James Comer needs to resign
— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) February 21, 2024
The same demand was made by Jon Cooper, co-founder of progressive campaign group The Democratic Coalition, who posted: “JAMES COMER MUST RESIGN.”
During a CNN appearance, House Democrat Daniel Goldman said: “Wittingly or unwittingly, House Republicans have been acting as an agent or asset of Russian intelligence for Vladimir Putin.”
Newsweek reached out to representatives of Comer and Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, for comment by email at 3:30 a.m. ET. This article will be updated if either responds.
Kevin Dietsch/GETTY
Joe Biden has consistently denied having any involvement in his son’s business dealings. When a Fox News reporter asked the president if he’d discussed business on the speaker phone with Hunter’s associates he replied: “I never talked business with anybody, I knew you would have a lousy question.”
Smirnov was arrested after he arrived back in the United States last week from what prosecutors termed a “a monthslong, multicounty foreign trip.”
Also on Tuesday, Hunter Biden’s legal team filed a motion arguing the arrest of Smirnov made it impossible for the president’s son to get a fair trial on charges he is facing of tax avoidance and buying a firearm whilst a known drug user. Hunter pled not guilty to the firearms related charges in October following the collapse of a plea deal.
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