In recent testimony at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, which has been involved in the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden, witness Lev Parnas — a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, who was appearing on Democrats’ behalf — credited much of the foundation for Republicans’ probe to Kremlin lies.
“The impeachment proceedings that bring us here now are predicated on a bunch of false information that is being spread by the Kremlin,” Parnas said in his opening remarks. “Throughout this entire situation, no credible source has ever provided proof of Joe or Hunter Biden’s alleged corruption in Ukraine. The FBI, CIA, and NSA have all failed to produce any evidence of criminal activity. No respectable Ukrainian official has ever said that the Bidens did anything illegal.”
While Hunter Biden — a son of the current president — was criminally charged in the U.S., the case involves allegations of tax evasion and improperly possessing a gun. The younger Biden was previously involved with the Ukrainian company Burisma, but bribery allegations connecting him and his father to the company’s leadership fell flat — again — with the recent indictment of the ex-federal source who gave the claims to authorities. Defendant Alexander Smirnov allegedly lied to federal authorities here in the U.S. and reportedly admitted to getting claims on the younger Biden from Russian sources, having been broadly connected in reports to Russian intelligence circles.
Republicans have focused — at least previously — on the bribery claims in the context of what’s now their sputtering impeachment probe.
Investigators, meanwhile, already heard in an extensive, private deposition from Hunter Biden himself, who was consistent in asserting that his father had no role in his business activities. Republicans leading the investigation have subsequently pushed the prospect of testimony from the president himself and a public hearing with Hunter Biden, whose lawyer already rejected initial ideas for such a thing given by Republicans, pointing — alongside other concerns — to lingering questions involving Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner seemingly ignored by House Republicans.
