Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is asking the Justice Department for investigations into actions by Scott Brady, who was nominated by then-President Donald Trump for a stint as U.S. Attorney, a role Brady left following Joe Biden taking office.
Nadler suggests Brady misled members of the Judiciary panel in prior testimony relating broadly to now imploded allegations of bribery implicating the Bidens.
The claims, originating with former federal source Alexander Smirnov, involved a top figure at Ukrainian energy company Burisma supposedly discussing millions in bribes for the now president and his son, Hunter Biden. Smirnov was more recently indicted and faces accusations of lying to federal authorities, and reports link him to Russian intelligence circles. Brady, meanwhile, was tasked when still a lead U.S. prosecutor to help handle the Justice Department’s initial examinations of claims involving the Bidens and Burisma, and he left the evident impression in his testimony that relevant details were, in fact, reasonably corroborated.
Even Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who leads the Judiciary panel, took that away from Brady’s testimony, per the letter from Nadler. “In fact, he said in that deposition, we looked at where he was and his schedule when these meetings took place and found that he was in those locations meeting with these people,” Jordan stated. Jordan also helps lead the House GOP’s ambitious impeachment inquiry targeting the president, which Republicans started in tandem with the bribery claims originating with Smirnov.
“According to the February 14, 2024, indictment, however, Mr. Smirnov’s claims that he traveled to Ukraine and Austria to meet Burisma officials around 2015 and 2016 were “a fabrication.” In fact, Mr. Smirnov “met with officials from Burisma for the first time in 2017,” over a year later than he claimed in the 2020 FD-1023, and “did not travel to Vienna” in the 2015/2016 time period as he claimed to,” Nadler recapped.
The Democrat seeks an investigation into “whether Mr. Brady made false statements or materially omitted relevant information in an attempt to mislead the Committee and influence the outcome of congressional proceedings in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001.”
