In a wide-ranging new letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Inspector General at the Justice Department Michael Horowitz, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) — the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee — suggests Trump-picked ex-U.S. Attorney Scott Brady was part of “a deliberate attempt to launder foreign disinformation through the Department of Justice.”
Brady helped lead the department’s handling of allegations linking the Ukrainian company Burisma to the Biden family. He evidently pushed the Justice Department’s investigations along on an apparent assumption of potential legitimacy. Brady and his team pushed for an interview by the Justice Department with now ex-federal source Alexander Smirnov, who was much more recently indicted by federal authorities for allegedly lying and who reports tie to Russian intelligence circles. Allegations that Smirnov put forward of bribery linking President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and Burisma were part of what spurred an ongoing impeachment inquiry from House Republicans targeting the president.
Republicans already gave those bribery claims extensive air-time, spreading the idea even if technically including the caveat — sometimes — the story constituted merely allegations. But now, there’s this link to Russia.
As Nadler tells it, Brady then put forward an evident impression that federal authorities meaningfully corroborated key details of Smirnov’s accounts — details later upended by the indictment accusing him of lying.
“During his October 23, 2023, transcribed interview before the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Brady repeatedly testified that he had vetted and found credible statements made by a confidential human source (CHS), now identified as Alexander Smirnov,” Nadler wrote. “Of course, on February 14, 2024, a federal grand jury in the Central District of California indicted Alexander Smirnov for making a false statement to the FBI and creating a false and fictitious record. Given what we now know about Mr. Smirnov, it seems unlikely that Mr. Brady actually verified any of the information Mr. Smirnov provided to the FBI.”
“Mr. Brady’s testimony to the contrary does not appear to be a mere misstatement—his comments were deliberate, repeated, and detailed,” the Democrat continued, adding: “Mr. Brady stated that he directed the FBI to conduct the June 2020 interview with Mr. Smirnov, who is alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence, despite reluctance from FBI agents handling the matter. If true, then Mr. Brady appears to have been part of a deliberate attempt to launder foreign disinformation through the Department of Justice.”
