Marjorie Traitor Greene may not be the stupidest member of Congress— remember Lauren Boebert— but she is certainly the least self-aware. Call her a moron and it’s like water off a duck’s back. You must be talking about someone else. The revelations that the Republicans’ star witness in the Trump-demanded impeachment "investigation" the whole conference voted for indicate that the GOP was eager to buy into another Russian attempt to manipulate America in favor of their Trump puppet. Listen (below) to Jamie Raskin explaining how the whole GOP got taken in by Russian intelligence disinformation. I don’t expect Traitor Greene to understand any of this, but Gym Jordan, James Comer and MAGA Mike sure do— not to mention swing district Republicans who voted for the hyper-partisan impeachment nonsense, like John James (MI), Mike Lawler (NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR), Brandon Williams (NY), Michelle Steel (CA), Don Bacon (NE), Anthony D’Esposito (NY), Tom Kean (NJ), Maria Salazar (FL), David Valadao (CA), etc.
The Blue America-endorsed candidates in the Midwest take this treason stuff the Republicans are dipping their toes in very seriously. Diane Young is running in the suburban swing district just north of Detroit, held by a follow-the-leader kind of do-nothing Republican. “John James,” she told me, “has repeatedly shown he does not have good judgement— he voted to start an impeachment process based on information that turned out to be Russian propaganda! James in the past met with former Soviet Lev Parnas, who had shady dealings and was convicted of campaign violations. He has repeatedly shown us he lacks the ability to investigate responsibly and separate facts from fiction. The people in my district deserve better.”
Jerrad Christian, an Ohio Navy vet running for a congressional seat held by knee-jerk Republican backbencher Troy Balderson, didn’t approve of Balderson going along with the MAGA crowd to encourage a pointless, partisan impeachment. “The impeachment proceedings against President Biden,” he told me yesterday, “have been nothing but a spectacle rather than a substantive pursuit of justice. The recent developments, particularly the discrediting of key witnesses as foreign assets, and an arms trafficker, suggest that the process is backfiring on the Republicans. This situation reflects a broader issue of 'outrage culture' perpetuated by these political figures, marked by a reliance on sensationalism and unverified claims because they lack the basic capability to represent the needs of those of us out here in the world. We are weary of these tactics and the falsehoods they propagate. It is time to vote out politicians who lack the courage to stand up for truth and integrity, as their actions not only hinder progress and force division but also embarrass the nation on the global stage.”
Alexander Smirnov, currently in jail as a flight risk, was Comer’s and Jordan’s chief “witness” in their fact-free impeachment case. He had claimed, falsely, that Hunter Biden was accepting bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch and splitting the loot with Joe Biden. It was all a Russo-MAGA fantasy that Smirnov now admits was given to him by a Russian intelligence agent. David Kurtz: “The implications of this Russian operation are staggering, especially for the willing Republicans and right-wing media stooges who were the useful idiots propagating the disinformation for years. The James Comers, Chuck Grassleys, Jim Jordans of the world have been trafficking in this stuff as the purported basis for a Biden impeachment, which is itself tightly yoked to Trump’s campaign for re-election. Right-wing outlets, most notably Fox News, have been amplifying the claims not dozens or hundreds but thousands of times over the past several months. Everywhere you turn, it’s Russia either helping Trump directly or indirectly by damaging Trump’s foes. The pattern is clear and persistent but also so sweeping and far-reaching that it really requires taking a step back to grasp the full scope of it all. It has dominated right-wing media, become an accepted ‘fact’ among MAGA adherents, and allowed elected Republicans to play mainstream media like a cheap fiddle. All those breathless Biden impeachment process stories? They’re an outgrowth of this disinformation campaign.”
OK, now watch Jamie Raskin explaining it so that even Boebert might be able to comprehend what kind of a trap the Republicans, especially Jordan, got lured into— and then used to betray their country:
Travis Gettys reported that “Prosecutors revealed that the so-called whistleblower in the Hunter Biden investigation was feeding disinformation directly from Russian spies to Republican lawmakers. Alexander Smirnov admitted that ‘officials associated with Russian intelligence’ were involved with passing along a story about President Joe Biden's son that became the basis of allegations in the GOP impeachment inquiry, and prosecutors said the former FBI informant was ‘actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections.’”
NBC News reporter Tom Winter told MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday that revelations about the sources for Smirnov's claims were nothing short of stunning.
"I think when you look at this in the totality of what was in the detention memo, which was extraordinary— I mean, prosecutors use these to really put the hammer down and show a bit about what type of evidence they will bring forward," Winter said. "When you look at the filing [Tuesday], they went really deep and unclassifying information, information that was unclassified on Valentine's Day, when Smirnov was arrested, deep into his background, that he was a 10-year-plus source for the FBI."
"He had a handler that he talked to nearly every day, which is a lot, by the way, for somebody who is a confidential human source," Winter added. "[He was] somebody who had been run out of the Seattle field office, assigned to an agent who works in the criminal squad there, and the key line from this, and we'll show a portion of the document that was filed [Tuesday], is that it says during his custodial interview on Feb. 14, so it occurs after Smirnov is in handcuffs, he admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about business person one who we've publicly identified is Hunter Biden. So he told the FBI after he is in handcuffs, 'Yes, I did this, and it came from individuals associated with Russian intelligence.'"
Smirnov has been charged with lying to FBI agents about a series of meetings in 2015 and 2016 and phone calls from 2016 and 2017 that allegedly implicated Hunter Biden in a foreign business scheme, and those false claims apparently came directly from Russian intelligence sources and were then delivered to Republican lawmakers.
"He didn't pay attention to what he already told the FBI, so there is information that they write up in a report called a 1023 report, and that is just a summary of the conversation that they had with the guy," Winter said. "There is nothing in there that says whether or not they determined what he said was true or it made sense, but the 1023 is an interesting part of this because it speaks to the congressional component. If you remember, there was a big fight in Congress about whether or not a 1023 from a confidential human source about the Bidens should be released from the FBI. That happens in the spring of last year."
"At some point it is released, and there is further discussions about this is what the Bidens were up to, there is even information about what Hunter Biden was up to at a hotel in Ukraine," Winter added. "Hunter Biden has never been there, so it raises questions as to whether or not the Russians took a look at the fact that information they are feeding this guy can go direct to Congress, and they are smart enough to realize, 'Hey, we don't even need to try to push it through the FBI, we can just tell this guy whatever, and information will go in the report and then it might just find its way to Congress, and there is no legal vetting here— there is nothing here that says whether or not what this guy said was true or not.'"
