Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was fact-checked on live TV Wednesday after refusing to back away from allegations against President Joe Biden that apparently originated with Russian intelligence.
So-called whistleblower Alexander Smirnov was last week arrested and accused of lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden, and he admitted to investigators that he fed Republican lawmakers information that came from officials associated with Russian intelligence. But Jordan insisted to CNN's Manu Raju that the evidence for impeachment had not changed in light of those facts.
"It doesn't change the four fundamental facts," Jordan told Raju outside the U.S. Capitol. "Hunter Biden was put on the board of Burisma, gets paid $1 million a year. Fact No. 2, he's not qualified to be on the board — he said so himself in an interview, I don't know, with you or some network. Fact No. 3, [Mykola] Zlochevsky and [Vadym] Pozharsky, the two executives at Burisma, specifically asked Hunter Biden, 'Can you weigh in with D.C. and help us deal with the pressure we are facing from the prosecutor?' Fact No. 4, Joe Biden, then he gets called, Hunter Biden calls his dad, according to Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's business partner. Joe Biden then goes to Ukraine three days later and conditions the release of the money, American tax money, on the firing of the prosecutor who was applying the pressure to the company that Hunter Biden sat on the board of."
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In fact, multiple State Department witnesses, including former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, have testified that official U.S. policy called for the removal of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, whose deputy has said their office was not investigating Burisma at that time, and a Senate investigation found no evidence that Hunter Biden's board position influenced American policy.
"You said the 1023 [report] is the most corroborating piece of information you had," Raju said to Jordan, referring to an FBI report containing Smirnov's false claims about Hunter Biden that GOP lawmakers hyped last year.
"It corroborates," Jordan said, "but it doesn't change those fundamental facts."
"Well, it's not true," Raju replied.
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