Oversight Committee Chairman james comers Sham Impeachment Inquiry of president joe biden, was not In Washington testifying on behalf of House Republicans, that maybe would have made sense. Do you know why . He was at a hearing of his own, in Federal Court in las vegas. Because alexander stern of, the same person whos supposed to be the star witness, is charged with fabricating claims about the president and his son hunter biden. In relation to a Ukrainian Energy company. And for that, he could face up to 25 years in prison. A judge did release him on under strict conditions, including gps monitoring, and somewhat fittingly based on his shadowy reputation, i think its fair to say, we dont even seem to know what this guy looks like. We cant even show you a picture of him. Today, also a new filing, just a few hours ago released from federal prosecutors, added a pretty shocking, yet somewhat kind of predictable twist to all of this i wonder if youre ready for this. Russian spies, again. According to the government in this document, smirnov quote, claims to have contacts with multiple foreign Intelligence Agencies, and had plans to leave the United States two days after he was arrested last week for a months long, multi country foreign trip. During this trip, the defendant claims to be meeting with foreign intelligence contacts. Prosecutors go on to describe one of these supposed foreign intelligence contacts, a mysterious figure, described as russian official one. And wait for this. Quote, it says, smirnov has reported numerous contacts with russian official one, who has been described by smirnov in a number of ways, including as the son of a former high ranking russian government official, someone who purportedly controls two groups of individuals tasks with carrying out Assassination Efforts in a thirdparty country. Pause for that for a moment. A russian representative to another country, and as someone with ties to a particular russian intelligence service. If this is all starting to seem, and sound, like a well scripted episode of the americans or homeland, or a Crossover Episode if you are a fan of both, there is more. Prosecutors say, about this. They say this is not an isolated incident smirnov is still pushing new conspiracies, as part of the urgency here, as indicated in this report filed today. And because he is still seeking information from foreign sources. It says quote, the misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020. He is actively peddling new lies that could impact u. S. Elections after meeting with russian intelligence officials in november. In other words, the guy says he was still talking to russian intelligence officials, as recently as a few months ago, about new ways to spread lies and misinformation to hurt President Bidens reelection chances. All of this, while of sensibly serving as the star witness of the republican smear campaign, and impeachment effort. Now, this is a lot to take and, i will acknowledge that, im trying to explain it all as clearly as i can. But this report, this is public, this is all of the information, it is public. And i certainly encourage you to read it yourself. It also shouldnt be shocking, and its worth noting that russian language sources have been pushing this nonsense about President Biden for a long, long time. And im talking like long before he was president. According to a 2020 report from democrats on the House Foreign Affairs committee, russian disinformation about the president s supposed corruption in ukraine is almost a decade old, dating back to 2015. When, quote, u. S. Embassy officials in kyiv noticed articles in russian language media highlighting Hunter Bidens role at burisma, and using that to undercut Anti Corruption efforts that were being led by vice President Biden. Hunter biden had been associated with burisma for a year and a half at that point, with no indication that he had tried to influence u. S. Policy towards ukraine or burisma. So why is the story coming up now . The records provide an answer, as Embassy Officials immediately flagged the timing, that vice President Biden was traveling to ukraine that same leak to give an address to the ukrainian parliament. And in that speech, the Vice PresidentPledged Americas and support for ukraine in its historic battle against corruption. Hence the state run russian Propaganda Machine got winding up. So there you have it. Then vice President Biden want to take a stand against corruption in ukraine, and according to the report from Foreign Affairs democrats, the russians responded with a Whisper Campaign to discredit biden and his family. So this is important and relevant, because that same disinformation effort surfaced again, when then President Donald Trump passed Rudy Giuliani with digging up dirt about the bidens in ukraine. And its surfacing again now, as james comer and his fellow House Republicans grow, i think its fair to say, increasingly desperate to fulfill trumps demands of a biden impeachment. But its all the same nonsense its always been. The kremlin, by the way, is always going to look for potential assets. They have for decades. They are always going to look for sources to help spread disinformation. Thats all been going on for a long time, thats one of their tactics. But there is an election in just over eight months, so its still pretty alarming that they are still managing to find officials in the United States who are winningly, or unwittingly, helping them. Joining me now to kick off the show is ryan reilly, a justice reporter from nbc news. So ryan, i just kind of tick through a number of components here. But let me start by asking you, what did i miss . And what are the highlights that stuck out to you, as you read through this . You know, i think you really highlighted it well. And i think that this hearing today, they sort of laid it all on the field, prosecutors here. And they really didnt hold anything back, in terms of laying out what exactly this informant had said two fbi officials, right. Because what i dont think i understood until today, really, is just how recently some of these contacts have been. This port isnt so much and former fbi informant, who was or hasnt been used for a or something. This is a really recent activity. In fact, this travel plan that he had was sort of coordinated with the fbi. So the fbi did, until recently, see this person as an authority figure, and someone who they could rely on. And they had a pretty long standing relationship with him. He is 43 now, but the relationship dates back to 2010. So put that roughly around 30, and now these Charging Documents say he has access to a boatload of money, about 6 million in liquid cash. So theres still a lot of holes, i think, in this story. And we are going to, i think, find out more as this goes on, about how the fbi had been previously using this individual. But i was surprised by how much they just sort of put forward on the record for this argument, to hold him behind bars. Because of course, putting out that information could certainly make some enemies. But we really dont know a lot about what is true, and what is just according to him, right. Because we now know that he was sort of lying about these contacts, or that is at least what is alleged in these documents, and there is no suggesting that he actually knew these burisma officials when he said he knew them. In fact, he wasnt introduced to the mental 2017. So, it seems to be a pretty clear lie there. But a lot of this is coming from him, so its tough to say whats trustworthy, and what is not here. And its a really good point, ryan. And the urgency here was also striking to me. Thank you so much, im going to let you get back to your reporting, and get some guest who is sitting here at the stable. Thank you for joining me this evening. Congressman jamie raskin is of course a democrat of maryland, and of course as we all know, the Ranking Member on the oversight house, oversight committee. So, let me just start by just reading through this today. I mean, its pretty startling that an individual, who purportedly, reportedly threw his own account, had contacts with high russian officials. He was supposed to be the star witness, to the House Oversight committee in testifying to try to impeach joe biden. I mean, how concerned are you that someone like him could have such a direct line to james comer and House Republicans . Are you concerned that the kremlin is getting to the people you are working on the committee with . Well, it seems to me like Everything Is Illuminated now. In 2016, we know that putin had a whole cyberespionage, in cyber interference campaign at the dnc, and with hillary clinton. 17 of our National Security agencies said so, the same thing happened in 2020, when Donald Trumps own Treasury Department sanctioned putin for, again, his attempts to subvert and undermined our president ial campaign. So, the same thing is going on for 2024. And, all based on the same recycled lies. They start off with, it is an amazing document here. This guy claims he only has 15, 000, he actually has 6 million. He is up to. That is a bit of a gap there. [laughter] he is up to his eyeballs in interaction with russian intelligence agents, where all of this obviously began, in terms of concocting the story that burisma had paid joe biden 5 million. And, that was the source of this whole wild goose chase that we have been on for more than a year now. It began to backpedal on and say no, its not really about that, its about something else, maybe its about china, or maybe its about the california bar, we dont know what its about. Last week, but now its very clear that theyve all been dukes to a Russian Disinformation Campaign propaganda effort. And look, when i try to put the whole thing together, what i see is this. Vladimir putin knows he cant challenge america militarily. I mean, we are the Largest Military in the world, we are 20 times larger than him, in terms of our economy, he cant challenge us economically. But he figured that the Achilles Heel was the openness of our society, on the internet, and social media. And thats why. Thats what you saw in 2016, thats continued. And its gone on, this Internet Research agency spent tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars just to try to subvert and undermined our political system, with lies and propaganda, disinformation and Conspiracy Theories. And this was a leading one, but it of course continues to this day. And my republican colleagues say oh, this is just more about the russia hoax. Really, whats the hoax . Is it the invasion of ukraine . Is the death of Alexei Navalny . Or his attempted poisoning back in 2020 . Or his death just a few days ago . I mean, when they say russia hoax, or are they talking about . They are basically echoing donald trump, who made it very clear when he was president of the United States that he would always prefer Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putins version of the truth over what our own Intelligence Agencies say, or what the whole world is saying. I mean, the context of this, as you just mentioned, is so important, given the backdrop of what just happened, which you just outlined. I mean, reading through it, and ryan outlined this, there are a lot of questions still. One of the things i when did comer know about this . Which im sure you dont know at this point, but you are probably wondering. Also, it struck me as, it is clearly an ongoing effort by the kremlin. This is a person we know about, but what are other questions you had reading through this, that you really hope there are answers on, or want to get answers on . Well, my big question is for the Republican Party. I mean, i want to assume the best, and give them the benefit of the doubt. Lets say they really didnt know whether or not this is true, and now it is overwhelmingly likely that it is a lie, its a Conspiracy Theory made up by russian intelligence, pumped through smoothing of, into america. And then they picked it up, and theyve been running with the football ever since. But it should be over now. They should close down the circus, its over. What will they do . Will they just move on to a new lie, a new Conspiracy Theory that someone feeds them . Or will they say hey, you know what, we gave it our best shot, but its over. And why dont we look at something thats really affecting the American People, like gun violence right now . Well, if only. I think we would. Now, we have been surprised in the past, im sure you have even been surprised. Do you think they are going to proceed at this point . Well, they have proven to be nothing, if not acrobatic, in terms of doing triple somersaults to try to land in a place where there is a whole new theory of whats going on. If they just want to talk about political influence peddling, In Washington, or they want to talk about the emoluments clause, that im all for it. We, the democrats, put out a report explaining how we have documented receipts of donald trump pocketing nearly 8 million from the chinese government, from the murderous monarch of saudi arabia, from the united arab emirates. Lets talk about that, and lets talk about developing a legislative apparatus to keep people in government from taking the American People to the cleaners by collecting all of this money from foreign states, kings and princes, which is fanned by the constitution. So we could have a real discussion about that, which would be bipartisan, or non partisan, but they dont want to do it. And they refused to look at everything that Donald Trumps soninlaw has collected, more than Two Billion Dollars that Jared Kushner brought back from the saudis, in a company he created the day after the Trump Administration ended. So, we could look at that question, if they want to be serious about it. But instead, they have decided just to follow the pay masters back in the home office in moscow. We will have to be watching all of this. There are lots of Unanswered Questions reading this. Congressman jamie raskin, its such a pleasure talking to you, thank you so much for being here in person with us tonight. You bet. And still ahead, i will talk with a russian expert, who says putin is counting on trump to regain the white house. Plus, the complicity of House Republicans, in his pro putin agenda. Or it seems certainly, we are just talking about that. And why primary voters are rejecting nikki haley by double digits, even if it doesnt intellectually make sense. As trump runs away with the nomination. That is all coming, up next. Nomination. That is all coming, up next. But now i have rinvoq. Rinvoq is a oncedaily pill that reduces the itch and helps clear the rash of eczema fast. Some rinvoq patients felt significant itch relief as early as 2 days. 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