Informant’s connection to Russian intelligence tangles House GOP’s push to impeach Biden – live | US politics

Federal prosecutors revealed the connection between Russian intelligence and the former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov yesterday, when they argued that Smirnov should be detained while he awaited trial on charges related to lying to the FBI.

In a court document, prosecutors said that Smirnov revealed Russian intelligence’s involvement during a 14 February interview, when he was arrested in Las Vegas after returning to the United States from overseas. However, the line is vague – it does not specify exactly what information Moscow spread about Hunter Biden.

“During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about” Biden, the filing says, without elaborating.

The Associated Press reports that a judge allowed Smirnov to be released on bail while awaiting trial, and is being monitored by an electronic GPS device.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. For months, Republicans in the House of Representatives have been inching forward with an effort to impeach Joe Biden for alleged corruption. They have been particularly fixated on his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, but the case against the president was dealt a major blow in recent days, after federal prosecutors brought charges against the former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. The GOP fixated on Smirnov’s claims that both Bidens received bribes from a Ukrainian energy company, but prosecutors say those were fabricated. In another filing yesterday, the plot unraveled further: Smirnov allegedly had contacts with Russian intelligence, the government said.

What does all this mean for Republicans? The Biden impeachment effort hasn’t exactly been a top priority in recent months, and isn’t going to get the president out of office – Democrats control the Senate, and are sure to reject the charges. Congress is out, but Biden’s Republican antagonists in the House such as the oversight committee chair, James Comer, and the judiciary committee chair, Jim Jordan, will be pressed to react to the Smirnov affair – we’ll let you know if we hear from them today.

Here’s what else is going on:

• Biden speaks at 3.45pm from Culver City, California. He traveled to the Golden State yesterday, mostly for campaign events.

• James Biden is taking part in a behind-closed-doors deposition as part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president.

• The New York attorney general, Letitia James, told ABC News she would seize Donald Trump’s properties if he can’t pay the big civil fraud judgment against him.