House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), left, and House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who are leading the House Oversight investigation into the business dealings of the Biden family, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Dec. 13, 2023.

WASHINGTON ― A central piece of evidence in the impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden may have just evaporated.

The Justice Department on Thursday announced that an FBI informant was lying when he said a Ukrainian oligarch told him he’d bribed Biden.

Special counsel David Weiss, the U.S. attorney prosecuting the president’s son Hunter Biden on gun purchase and tax delinquency crimes, announced that FBI informant Alexander Smirnov has been charged with making a false statement and creating a false record related to the bribery allegation.

Republicans brought Smirnov’s claims to light last summer as part of their investigation into alleged corruption in the Biden family.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) obtained and published an FBI file recording Smirnov’s claim that Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, which employed the president’s son, had paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million in bribes.

For months, Republicans have claimed the bribery allegation had come from a credible source. According to the Justice Department, the allegation had been made up.

“As alleged in the indictment, the events that Smirnov first reported to the FBI Agent in June 2020 were fabrications,” the Justice Department said in a press release.

Smirnov had, in fact, been in contact with Burisma executives, the department said, but “transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts” into bribery allegations against Biden, whose candidacy for president he opposed.

When FBI agents followed up with Smirnov last September, he allegedly “repeated some of his false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.”

Smirnov could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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