Top Democrat demands dropping of impeachment proceedings against Biden, but GOP says probe to continue

WASHINGTON: US House Representative Jamie Raskin, a top Democrat from Maryland, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, has called for an end to the Republican-led impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden after the Justice Department special counsel indicted a witness for making "false" statements to the FBI.

Alexander Smirnov, an informant with the FBI since 2010, was indicted for allegedly making false claims to the bureau in 2020 about the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paying off the President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden $5 million each.

The alleged "false claim" has been central to House Republicans' corruption allegations against Biden.

Representative Raskin said the indictment from special counsel David Weiss showed "how key evidence at the heart of House Republicans' impeachment inquiry is based on a lie".

"In a detailed indictment, Special Counsel David Weiss--who was appointed by former President Donald Trump--has demonstrated how key evidence at the heart of House Republicans' impeachment inquiry is based on a lie," Raskin said in a statement.

"Special Counsel Weiss's investigation is just the most recent to debunk the Ukraine-Burisma conspiracy theory at the heart of this fraudulent impeachment inquiry."

"It is an undeniable fact that Republicans' allegations against President Biden have always been a tissue of lies built on conspiracy theories, and I formally call on Speaker Johnson, Chairman Comer, and House Republicans to stop promoting this nonsense and end their doomed impeachment inquiry," Raskin was quoted by the Washington Examiner.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (Representative from Kentucky), key investigator in the impeachment efforts against Joe Biden, said on Thursday that the indictment of Smirnov doesn't undermine the House GOP's impeachment inquiry.

"To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI's FD-1023. It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family's business dealings," Comer said in a statement, referring to the document he subpoenaed the FBI for last year.

In response to Raskin's statement, the GOP Oversight Committee wrote on X, "We have over $30 million reasons to continue this investigation and not one of those reasons relies on the corrupt FBI or an informant. Bank records don't lie."