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Smirnov Scandal: Experts Call for Investigations, Warn GOP of Possible Conspiracy Charges
Legal and national security experts including former prosecutors are calling for the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the U.S. Senate to conduct investigations into the Alexander Smirnov scandal to determine how a trusted FBI informant was able to allegedly plant false Kremlin propaganda attacking Joe Biden and Hunter Biden into the Republican House of Representatives in an effort to take down the President of the United States.
Other legal experts are warning House Republicans if they continue to assert what Special Counsel David Weiss stated in a court document are false claims, including that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden each took $5 million bribes, they could be subject to conspiracy charges.
The top three Republicans being mentioned are House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Comer, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley.
The U.S. Dept. of Justice “must investigate whether and when Grassley, Comer or Jordan knew that Smirnov was spreading Russian disinformation,” declared U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted mobsters and Russian organized crime. “But now that it’s public, Comer and Jordan clearly will be conspiring with Putin to interfere in the election if they continue with this bogus impeachment.”
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“The Comer/Jordan impeachment sham appears to have been a Russian intelligence operation from the start,” says Goldman, who also served as a lead counsel during the first House impeachment and Senate trial of Donald Trump. “The only remaining question is whether Rs were witting or unwitting agents of Putin in their desperate quest to get Trump reelected. Will the GOP continue to work for Putin?”
MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor for three decades, on Wednesday night warned Republicans.
“I think the big question now is, what will the Republican members of Congress do now that they know that these are lies that they have been peddling as ably-assisted by Fox News? Will they continue to peddle those lies?” he told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, “I heard Congressman Daniel Goldman on this network earlier this evening, saying something that I am in agreement with. He said that if members of Congress now continue to peddle knowing lies that are a product of Russian propaganda and disinformation, they should be criminally investigated for being part and parcel of a conspiracy to defraud the United States and to interfere in our elections.”
Meanwhile, Tristan Snell, the former New York State prosecutor who led the successful investigation and $25 million prosecution of Donald Trump’s “Trump University,” is calling for the U.S. Senate to start an investigation.
“The Senate should open an immediate investigation into the Alexander Smirnov scandal — with public hearings. Bring Smirnov in to testify. And then bring Jim Jordan, James Comer, and Elise Stefanik in right behind him. This is a national security breach of the HIGHEST order.”
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Snell is also calling for subpoenas to be issued for Republicans Jim Jordan, Ron Johnson, Jim Comer, Elise Stefanik, and Chuck Grassley.
“And subpoena their government emails, private emails, texts, and phone records pertaining to Alexander Smirnov in any way,” he adds. “DOJ must MOVE — IMMEDIATELY.”
On Tuesday Snell had said: “Alexander Smirnov is just the tip of a much larger and dirtier iceberg — of Putin’s continued attempts to overthrow America from within. We must DEMAND that DOJ and the intelligence agencies follow this investigation wherever it leads. Go all in with a full investigation. NOW.”
National security expert Denver Riggleman, the former Republican U.S. Congressman who later worked as an advisor to the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, is also calling for a investigation.
“There should be an investigation into all sources and data used in the Hunter Biden ‘laptop and data’ Oversight committee hearings,” he wrote on X. “This should also include link/relationship maps to all ‘source’ meetings between GOP congressional representatives and confirmed or assumed foreign assets. The report on sourcing and provenance should be made available to the public.”
Watch Congressman Goldman’s remarks to CNN below or at this link.
A former FBI informant charged with lying about the Biden family has told investigators that Russian intelligence officials were involved in passing information to him about Hunter Biden, prosecutors said in a new filing. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) talks about it with Anderson. pic.twitter.com/20JtVXq8bl
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 21, 2024
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