GOP's indicted key witness was known to be a 'liar and fraudster' in 2016: report

The Republicans' impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden was dealt a serious blow last month when FBI informant Alexander Smirnov was arrested and charged with lying to federal investigators about the president and his son. According to CBS News, "Federal prosecutors were put on notice as far back as 2016" that Smirnov was what one source described as a "liar and a fraudster" who had already been accused of fabricating evidence in an entirely separate court case. Joseph Benincasa, a defense lawyer in the 2016 case that featured Smirnov as a witness, told CBS News that he struggled to understand why Smirnov remained in apparently good standing with the FBI afterward. Former Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich told CBS News that revelations about Smirnov could trigger massive headaches for the DOJ in terms of past cases that hinged on his credibility as a witness. Rep. Jerry Nadler last month also called for the DOJ to review its history of working with Smirnov, and he suggested that investigators had left themselves vulnerable for falling for foreign intelligence operations as "part of a deliberate attempt to launder foreign disinformation through the Department of Justice."