CNN’s Pamela Brown Grills James Comer for ‘Playing Up’ FBI Informant Who Pled Guilty to Lying During Biden Impeachment Probe
CNN anchor Pamela Brown grilled House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) for citing the testimony of a witness who pled guilty to lying about the business dealings of the Biden family.
FBI informant Alexander Smirnov pleaded guilty earlier this week on four federal charges relating to falsifying statements that assisted the GOP impeachment investigation into Joe Biden for corruption. Moreover, Smirnov pleaded guilty to unrelated tax evasion charges.
Smirnov reported to the FBI that the head of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma claimed he bribed Biden and his son Hunter Biden $5 million.
During a Wednesday morning interview on CNN, Brown grilled Comer on whether he regretted “playing up” the testimony of the now disgraced informant for the impeachment investigation.
BROWN: And even your colleague, Jason Smith, we should point out, tweeted that the informant’s phony testimony, now phony, we know to the FBI was a smoking gun. Do you regret playing this FBI informant up at the time at all? Even if you say you didn’t ultimately rely on him?
COMER: I didn’t play it up. And we asked everyone.
BROWN: You said it was a crucial part of the investigation.
COMER: Well, everything was a crucial part of investigation. I think the bank record, for the most crucial part, that show the Bidens took in $27 million from our adversaries around the world. They took in $8 million in loans that they never repaid back. That’s $35 million. And according to the IRS whistleblowers, they never paid a penny of taxes on it. That’s the crucial part of the investigation. We would interview anyone that that claimed they had information. Christopher Wray said this guy was credible. Chuck Grassley wanted us to interview the guy. That’s why McCarthy said that. That’s why Jim Jordan said that. I never said he was a crucial part of the investigation.
BROWN: We just played it on Fox.
COMER: I said I want to know. I want to know what this guy told the FBI. If this guy, the FBI had a record that said this guy said they took a bribe, well, we’ve got $5 million deposited from Burisma into Hunter Biden’s account. We know he didn’t pay taxes on it because that’s what we charged him on. And and we know Joe Biden fired the prosecutor who was investigating this company that paid a son $5 million. So obviously, we’re going to interview everyone…And most of what he was charged for paying was was tax evasion. And tax evasion is what he was charged for. So I know the FBI is trying to save face on the way out. But that’s the reality of it. The Bidens took a lot of money from bad people around the world. And that’s why Joe Biden had to pardon this son.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
