Key Informant who lied in Biden impeachment indicted on 10 tax fraud charges
A key informant for House Republicans' impeachment case against President Joe Biden has been indicted again, reported NBC News — this time on 10 charges of tax fraud.
According to the report, federal prosecutors said that Alexander Smirnov received more than $2 million in income from "multiple sources in 2020, 2021, and 2022” and bought “a $1.4 million Las Vegas condominium, a Bentley, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of clothes, jewelry and accessories for himself and [a] Domestic Partner purchased at high-end retailers in Los Angeles and Las Vegas" — all while concealing this money from the IRS.
Smirnov denied the allegations, with his legal team saying in a statement he "intends to vigorously fight these allegations."
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This comes after, earlier this year, Smirnov was indicted on charges of lying to the FBI about Biden and his son Hunter — a massive blow to GOP efforts to build an impeachment case against the president. Special counsel David Weiss, who was in charge of the criminal investigation against Hunter Biden that led to convictions on tax and gun crimes, also brought the charges against Smirnov. Prosecutors said Smirnov claimed some of his information came from "officials associated with Russian intelligence."
Before that indictment, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) claimed that Smirnov's testimony was the "heart" of the case for impeaching Biden.
The GOP for years has pursued a theory that Biden laundered international bribes through the overseas business dealings of his son, although the impeachment inquiry started after the GOP took control of the House in 2022 failed to find any compelling evidence that the president was involved in his son's projects or engaged in illegal activity through them.
Ultimately, Republicans couldn't muster the votes from their caucus to pass articles of impeachment against Biden, and settled for releasing a report insinuating Biden engaged in wrongdoing, that even some pro-Trump influencers dismissed.