Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is among the House Democrats sounding the alarm after a federal indictment upended the credibility of a prior source for federal authorities with allegations of lying, followed soon afterwards by reports of ties to Russian intelligence.
Defendant Alexander Smirnov previously put forward the notion of millions of dollars in bribe money from leadership at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma for President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Republicans seized on the claims, eventually kickstarting an impeachment inquiry targeting the president in the House and sometimes taking the allegations of millions of dollars in bribes very seriously, as though substantiated.
“Now, we’re getting a complete demolition of the theory, going back to their original source of it,” Raskin said. “I think this investigation is over in substance if not in form. And really, Chairman Comer, Speaker Johnson, and Chairman Jordan should do the responsible thing and fold up the circus tent.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) on the House Oversight Committee and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who leads the chamber’s Judiciary panel, both previously promoted the allegations, even if Republicans technically included the caveat — sometimes — that the tale was merely that: allegations.
Republicans have refused so far to give it up, though there’s no clear indication they’ll ever have the votes in the House necessary to actually approve an impeachment of the president. House Republicans recently impeached Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, alleging border failures after members of their own party voted down a bipartisan border deal in the Senate. And there’s zero indication the Mayorkas impeachment will go anywhere, meaning reach a Senate conviction forcing him from office in the still Democratic Party-led upper chamber.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who’s on Jordan’s committee, went further than Raskin, saying that the impeachment probe’s prominent co-leader Comer should resign from Congress altogether.
