On Wednesday, President Biden's brother James testified in the House impeachment inquiry. The PBS NewsHour aired an eight-minute segment on the Biden impeachment that never mentioned James Biden once.
Instead, they obsessed over a new Russian-interference angle.
Recent news that former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov made false allegations about Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting $5 million bribes from the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma caused much smug rejoicing. In fact, the NewsHour also hammered on this Democrat theme on February 15.
On Wednesday, White House reporter Laura Barron-Lopez used a "reliable" guest (from the Obama-Biden administration!) to help condemn the Republicans as willing dupes of Russian disinformation as a presidential election looms. But does Barron-Lopez really not remember the media’s own history of being conduit of Russian disinformation during the Trump years, especially the infamous Trump dossier?
Anchor William Brangham: An informant who's been charged with lying to the FBI about President Biden recently told law enforcement he's been in contact with Russian agents. That informant's story is at the center of Republicans' ongoing effort to impeach President Biden. Laura Barron-Lopez has more.
Barron-Lopez’s guest was Ryan Goodman, introduced as former special counsel for the Department of Defense – a description which left out the important part of the story. Her guest did his best to neutralize all the scandals and suspicions emanating from Biden and son Hunter – no surprise, since Goodman previously worked in the Obama-Biden administration. Don’t viewers have a right to know that PBS’s expert guest has a rooting interest in seeing Biden cleared of all suspicion?
Ryan Goodman: So, the big takeaway is that Mr. Smirnov appears to have been acting as an agent of Russian intelligence. And, according to the Department of Justice's filing in court, he was knowingly passing on false derogatory information about President Biden and Hunter Biden to the FBI, and that he's been doing so recently and actively. So that's the kind of bombshell of that court filing by the Justice Department.
This line was laughable, considering the recent political history of Russia and U.S. elections:
Barron-Lopez: Politics and impeachment aside, Ryan, from a national security perspective, what are the implications of apparent Russian disinformation being filtered through top Republican elected officials and media outlets like Fox News?
Speaking of disinformation: Remember the infamous dossier falsely alleging Trump ties to Russia, leading to myriad articles accusing Trump of “collusion” with Russia? One infamous article after the game was up, from New York Times’ legal reporter Charlie Savage, insisted “Discredited Steele Dossier Doesn't Undercut Russia Inquiry.”
Yet the Smirnov revelation evidently not only "undercuts" the Republican impeachment inquiry into Biden, it has Goodman seeing "Reds under the bed":
Goodman: So, in a certain sense, that is the goal of the Russian-Kremlin disinformation campaigns inside the United States. They want to divide us. They want to upset and overturn in a certain sense our institutions….
Barron-Lopez: What do you think the implications are for the House Republican impeachment inquiry?
The unacknowledged Biden partisan must have relished uncorking this statement, given his slight giggle.
Goodman: I have to think that the Republicans themselves would have to go back to the drawing board. This really does undermine a fundamental building block of the impeachment. So many of the allegations about President Biden having been bribed are coming from Mr. Smirnov. So many of the statements made by House Republicans for -- in favor of impeachment are traceable to him.
The PBS reporter even dragged the Ukraine-Russia war into the mix, asking how Smirnov “having connections to Russian intelligence officials fit into the bigger picture” of Trump roughly pushing America’s NATO allies to spend more on defense.
Besides working for the Obama-Biden administration as a special counsel in the Defense Department, Goodman has performed more recent partisan work for the president, cowriting with Robert Mueller-staff prosecutor-turned MSNBC star Andrew Weissmann a defense of Biden denying special counsel Robert Hur’s devastating report.
This segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular.
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS NewsHour
2/21/24
7:15:27 p.m. (ET)
William Brangham: An informant who's been charged with lying to the FBI about President Biden recently told law enforcement he's been in contact with Russian agents.
That informant's story is at the center of Republicans' ongoing effort to impeach President Biden.
Laura Barron-Lopez has more.
Laura Barron-Lopez: In a court filing last night, special counsel David Weiss said ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov told them he met with Russian operatives as recently as last December.
In the filing, prosecutors wrote: "Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about Businessperson 1," referring to President Biden's son Hunter Biden.
Prosecutors say that story of a Ukrainian energy firm bribing President Biden and his son is a complete fabrication being used to interfere in U.S. elections.
Joining me to discuss the implications is Ryan Goodman, former special counsel for the Department of Defense.
Ryan, thank you so much for joining. What's the big takeaway from this latest revelation?
Ryan Goodman, Former Department of Defense Special Counsel: So, the big takeaway is that Mr. Smirnov appears to have been acting as an agent of Russian intelligence.
And, according to the Department of Justice's filing in court, he was knowingly passing on false derogatory information about President Biden and Hunter Biden to the FBI, and that he's been doing so recently and actively. So that's the kind of bombshell of that court filing by the Justice Department.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Alexander Smirnov first made this raw, unverified allegation in 2020. It was not corroborated.
So why is David Weiss, who is a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, deciding to bring these charges now? And, also, why do you think Smirnov is just revealing last week that he's been in contact with Russian intel officials.
Ryan Goodman: So it seems as though Mr. Weiss has been building a case against Mr. Smirnov and that the FBI knew along the way that Mr. Smirnov was telling them lies and fabrications.
They were able to corroborate in a certain sense that these were falsehoods because his chronology didn't line up. The times he said that he met with the Burisma company didn't line up. He made an allegation about Hunter Biden's being in a country that Hunter Biden never visited. So, I think it's all about building that case to be able to prosecute him fully for false statements to the FBI.
And then now we have this mountain of new evidence and allegations in the court filing because the Justice Department is trying to implore the judges to not release Mr. Smirnov before trial. So that's where all this new information comes in. And Smirnov is revealing it to the government after arrest. So I think that it's important to know that, because, at that point, he should have known the jig is up.
So it wasn't as though it was part of the prior practice of him trying to lie to the FBI. It's him kind of coming clean after arrest and then knowingly telling the FBI as best as he could his contacts with Russian officials.
Laura Barron-Lopez: The unverified allegation made by Alexander Smirnov was in what's called a 1023 form, where the FBI takes in those raw allegations.
And it was the foundation, that form, for the House Republican impeachment probe. Just last month, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said that that form, that raw allegation, was the heart of their probe.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): But the most corroborating evidence we have is that 1023 form from this highly credible confidential human source, according to U.S. attorney Scott Brady.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Politics and impeachment aside, Ryan, from a national security perspective, what are the implications of apparent Russian disinformation being filtered through top Republican elected officials and media outlets like FOX News?
Ryan Goodman: So, in a certain sense, that is the goal of the Russian Kremlin disinformation campaigns inside the United States. They want to divide us. They want to upset and overturn in a certain sense our institution.
So if they can do something as much as fuel an impeachment process against a sitting president, that's already a success. And I think that's — to me, when I read this court filing, was one of the most alarming parts of it, just how much the Russian intelligence operation had in some sense succeeded in jump-starting this process.
And even when Speaker McCarthy, speaker at the time, announced the impeachment process, he referred specifically to Mr. Smirnov's what are now understood to be lies to the FBI, because that was also the heart of the allegations. So it's deeply concerning as a national security matter.
Laura Barron-Lopez: What do you think the implications are for the House Republican impeachment inquiry?
Ryan Goodman: I have to think that the Republicans themselves would have to go back to the drawing board.
This really does undermine a fundamental building block of the impeachment. So many of the allegations about President Biden having been bribed are coming from Mr. Smirnov. So many of the statements made by House Republicans for — in favor of impeachment are traceable to him.
Laura Barron-Lopez: In this filing, special counsel David Weiss said — quote — "The misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020. He," being Smirnov, "is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November."
Do you think that the damage is done and that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to potential Russian interference ahead of 2024?
Ryan Goodman: So I think a lot of damage has already been done. He really has in a certain sense, this particular individual, had an enormous effect on our political psyche and what's happened on the Hill and the corridors of power.
So I think that's already happened. And I also think it is a tip of the iceberg, but what's so astonishing about the court filing is, unlike the prior instances in which this goes according to the Russian playbook, we have direct information about Russian intelligence officials being right there in this operation.
Before, it was about cutouts, like Mr. Smirnov himself. But here it is Russian officials. In fact, Russian Official No. 1 is identified as somebody who has a direct line to the highest levels of the Russian government. And we can all understand what that means. That's what the DOJ says in the filing.
So I think this is in a certain sense a tip of the iceberg. This is — there's no way in which this is the only aspect of this Russian disinformation campaign. It's just giving us an indication of what they're trying to do to the country during especially a presidential election cycle.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Ryan, as we talk about this, Congress is in the middle of a heated debate about aiding Ukraine against Russian invasion.
And just last week, the leading GOP presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, said that he would encourage Russia to invade NATO allies if they don't spend enough on defense. So how does this latest revelation of the ex-FBI informant having connections to Russian intelligence officials fit into the bigger picture?
Ryan Goodman: So I think it's part of Vladimir Putin's overall strategic plan.
His main goal is to do something like divide the West, certainly to divide NATO or have NATO break up at a certain point. So, at some level, I think it is to do what he's done in the past, which is to support a candidate who has that as part of their agenda. It is to undermine the competing candidate, which is part of his agenda.
And even if he doesn't succeed at, in fact, having one of them win and the other one lose, the idea that he can inject so much distrust into the body politic in the United States around these issues of U.S. relationships with Ukraine, former vice president, current president's relationship with Ukraine, that's what he wants.
Laura Barron-Lopez: That's Ryan Goodman, a professor of law at New York University and a former special counsel to the Defense Department.
Thank you so much for your time.
Ryan Goodman: Thank you.
