'We can just tell this guy whatever': How Russian spies fed lies directly to GOP lawmakers
February 21, 2024
Prosecutors revealed that the so-called whistleblower in the Hunter Biden investigation was feeding disinformation directly from Russian spies to Republican lawmakers.
Alexander Smirnov admitted that "officials associated with Russian intelligence" were involved with passing along a story about President Joe Biden's son that became the basis of allegations in the GOP impeachment inquiry, and prosecutors said the former FBI informant was “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections.”
NBC News reporter Tom Winter told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday that revelations about the sources for Smirnov's claims were nothing short of stunning.
"I think when you look at this in the totality of what was in the detention memo, which was extraordinary – I mean, prosecutors use these to really put the hammer down and show a bit about what type of evidence they will bring forward," Winter said. "When you look at the filing [Tuesday], they went really deep and unclassifying information, information that was unclassified on Valentine's Day, when Smirnov was arrested, deep into his background, that he was a 10-year-plus source for the FBI."
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"He had a handler that he talked to nearly every day, which is a lot, by the way, for somebody who is a confidential human source," Winter added. "[He was] somebody who had been run out of the Seattle field office, assigned to an agent who works in the criminal squad there, and the key line from this, and we'll show a portion of the document that was filed [Tuesday], is that it says during his custodial interview on Feb. 14, so it occurs after Smirnov is in handcuffs, he admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about business person one who we've publicly identified is Hunter Biden. So he told the FBI after he is in handcuffs, 'Yes, I did this, and it came from individuals associated with Russian intelligence.'"
Smirnov has been charged with lying to FBI agents about a series of meetings in 2015 and 2016 and phone calls from 2016 and 2017 that allegedly implicated Hunter Biden in a foreign business scheme, and those false claims apparently came directly from Russian intelligence sources and were then delivered to Republican lawmakers.
"He didn't pay attention to what he already told the FBI, so there is information that they write up in a report called a 1023 report, and that is just a summary of the conversation that they had with the guy," Winter said. "There is nothing in there that says whether or not they determined what he said was true or it made sense, but the 1023 is an interesting part of this because it speaks to the congressional component. If you remember, there was a big fight in Congress about whether or not a 1023 from a confidential human source about the Bidens should be released from the FBI. That happened in the spring of last year."
"At some point it is released, and there is further discussions about this is what the Bidens were up to, there is even information about what Hunter Biden was up to at a hotel in Ukraine," Winter added. "Hunter Biden has never been there, so it raises questions as to whether or not the Russians took a look at the fact that information they are feeding this guy can go direct to Congress, and they are smart enough to realize, 'Hey, we don't even need to try to push it through the FBI, we can just tell this guy whatever, and information will go in the report and then it might just find its way to Congress, and there is no legal vetting here – there is nothing here that says whether or not what this guy said was true or not.'"
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