This likely escaped the attention of many Americans, but in the last Congress, the House Republican majority formally launched a deeply silly impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden. The misguided crusade, which quietly failed, was rooted in a scurrilous accusation: The Democrat, GOP officials said, was the beneficiary of a weird Ukrainian bribery scheme.

The story never really made any sense, but several congressional Republicans nevertheless took the claims seriously — and when pressed to justify their efforts, they pointed to an informant who had brought the bribery allegations to the attention of the FBI.

Whatever became of that guy? The informant, Alexander Smirnov, was sentenced to six years in prison last year after pleading guilty to a handful of crimes, including lying to the FBI about Biden.

That was last year. This year, Donald Trump’s Justice Department has taken steps to help him get Smirnov out of prison.

Mother Jones’ David Corn was first to report that in early March, federal prosecutors “quietly filed an unusual brief … supporting Smirnov’s attempt to throw out his sentence and withdraw his guilty plea.” The Wall Street Journal published a related report this week, highlighting steps Trump’s DOJ has taken to align itself with Smirnov’s defense lawyers. From the article:

In a federal courthouse in Los Angeles last spring, Judge Otis Wright II, a no-nonsense former Marine, was baffled by what he was hearing from the prosecutor before him. … The department was joining Smirnov’s defense lawyers in seeking his release while he appealed the six-year prison sentence that Wright had issued earlier that year.

‘Seriously?’ said Judge Wright, a nearly 20-year veteran of the court appointed by President George W. Bush. ‘At this stage, the government is taking a look at this case anew?’

‘Correct,’ [prosecutor Robert Keenan] said.

A lawyer for Smirnov, who wants to undo his guilty plea, confirmed on the record that, as things stand, the DOJ and the convicted felon are now “in complete agreement.”

I’m mindful that Smirnov is not exactly a household name, and this story probably won’t appear on the front pages of many newspapers, but the circumstances of these developments are ridiculous.

The trouble began in earnest in early 2024, when Smirnov was indicted for providing “false derogatory information” to the FBI about Biden and his son. The charges stemmed from the special counsel investigation led by David Weiss, a Trump-appointed prosecutor.

Reporting on the developments shortly after the indictment was announced, MS NOW’s Chris Hayes described this as “the most spectacular embarrassment imaginable” for the Republicans who targeted the Democratic president, and it’s worth understanding why.

For Biden’s partisan detractors on and off Capitol Hill, Smirnov’s claims were foundational. He was the party’s star witness. Sean Hannity’s Fox News show ran with this informant’s claims in 85 separate segments. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan conceded that the allegations raised by Smirnov represented “the heart” of the GOP’s case against the then-president, and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer made similar comments, declaring that Smirnov’s claims were “a very crucial piece of our investigation.”

The Republicans’ entire “bribery” conspiracy theory was based on the claims of one man — who was sent to a prison cell, in part because he lied to the FBI about the Bidens.

To make matters worse, the Republican Party’s anti-Biden witness, after getting indicted, conceded to prosecutors that some of the false information he spread came from “officials associated with Russian intelligence.”

Nevertheless, one year ago this week, Trump’s DOJ said it would revisit its case against the convicted felon. Now, Trump-aligned prosecutors want Smirnov to go free while he asks a federal appeals court to let Smirnov withdraw his guilty pleas.

If that happens, The Wall Street Journal’s report added, “the Justice Department could then drop the charges against Smirnov, erasing his admission that the bribery claims against the Bidens were fabricated.”

Since the incumbent Republican president returned to power, we’ve seen too many instances in which pro-Trump criminals have been rewarded, but there’s a related lesson that’s just as important: Anti-Democrat criminals apparently get rewards from Trump’s DOJ, too.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Trump DOJ rallies behind convicted informant who lied to FBI about Biden appeared first on MS NOW.

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