House Republicans are demanding the FBI turn over records related to the federal government’s indictment of a once-trusted confidential human source (CHS), according to a joint congressional letter shared exclusively with The Federalist.
On Friday, House Oversight Chairman James Comer and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent the letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray to request documents related to Special Counsel David Weiss’s indictment of CHS Alexander Smirnov. Smirnov was charged two weeks ago for allegedly making false statements about President Joe Biden’s involvement in a criminal bribery scheme with a Ukrainian oligarch. Republican lawmakers, however, are left with questions about the FBI’s sudden about-face on the source they once highly regarded.
“Prior to the indictment, the FBI allowed Mr. Smirnov to serve as a CHS for over 14 years and earn a six-figure income, while maintaining ‘extensive and extremely recent’ foreign intelligence contacts,” lawmakers wrote. “Only after Mr. Smirnov reported that President Joe Biden accepted a bribe from a Ukrainian energy company in exchange for using his official position to oust the Ukrainian Prosecutor General did the FBI apparently take a hard look at this CHS.”
The 43-year-old Smirnov pled not guilty to charges of fabricating the multimillion-dollar bribery scheme, which was outlined in an FD-1023 before Biden took office and is now at the heart of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry. The Bidens, Smirnov said, were paid $10 million to “protect” executives at the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma from the country’s prosecutors.
“If Smirnov lied to his handler in June
