David Weiss Chose Not to Record the Alexander Smirnov Interview He Attended
Alexander Smirnov has started filing motions in limine. I’ll return to them after Tuesday.
But for the moment I want to flag a detail he included in a motion to exclude the interview he had on September 27, 2023.
The interview takes up four pages of the indictment. In addition to providing varying statements about the charged false statement — that is, that in a call in 2019, Mykola Zlochevsky accused Joe Biden of accepting a bribe — Smirnov allegedly told a new false story, one that is not charged. he claimed that Hunter Biden had been recorded at the Premier Palace in Kyiv. As the indictment pointed out, that was obviously false, as Hunter Biden had never been to Kyiv.
I’ve always argued that that was an attempt to string on investigators, to give them more dirt on Hunter Biden, precisely what (I speculated) Smirnov perceived that they wanted.
But it was not charged for any of the claims he made in that interview, in which he substantially restated the initial false claim.
This may be why: His motion in limine describes that Special Counsel — that is, David Weiss — attended the interview, and it was not recorded.
Despite seeking an Indictment based solely on statements made in June 2020, Mr. Smirnov understands that the Government intends to introduce statements Mr. Smirnov allegedly made more than three years later, during his interview the FBI on September 27, 2023. Special Counsel was present at this interview, which was never recorded.
This is not — not remotely!! — how you approach an interview with a guy you suspect of lying.
On the contrary, it’s how you approach an interview with someone you’re still treating as a witness against someone else.
This strongly suggests that as late as September 27, 2023 David Weiss was still chasing the effort, launched by Bill Barr’s DOJ, to frame Joe Biden.
As I’ll explain more next week, there are other elements that suggest Weiss and his prosecutors are trying to hang all this exclusively on Smirnov.
Not recorded in literal sense or that no one there was taking detailed notes? FBI protocol is NOT to record in favor of detailed notes that are then translated in a transcript. This process purposefully creates a “defendant charged with crimes vs. virtuous agent of the federal government protecting the jury from heinous criminals” dynamic.
Additionally, did David Weiss record other witnesses? Differences in who was recorded vs. who was not recorded would be an interesting tidbit on the way to a pattern of behavior and/or conspiracy.
They used to do it that way. THey increasingly record. Like all of Jack Smith’s interviews are recorded; many were videotaped. A great many, if not most, Jan6 interviews were recorded, often taped.
If you’re interviewing a friendly witness, you can justify not recording (in part so you can fudge things). But if you’re trying to capture a liar, you record.
Shows how long I’ve been out of law school.
So, Weiss is admitting, tacitly, that Smirnov was both a suspected liar but also one friendly to Weiss’s primary case of “find dirt or launder false information to use against the Bidens.”
Is that going to be of any value at this stage of any of Hunter’s legal situation?
One other thing they’re trying to prevent is for Smirnov to introduce errors on the part of the handler. They need to prevent it from coming out that Smirnov was allowed to lie.
I am hoping that once this election is over, that Joe uses his authority to pardon his son. This has been a miscarriage of justice. There will be blowback, but when the truth comes out and all of it gets reported accurately – he will not have tarnished anything. Joe deserves the last word. I hope he takes it.
They can include a narrative of the “crime” and a reason for clemency. Nothing stops them from making the narrative comprehensive, thought I doubt that they would. Alternatively, the could include stats on similarly placed defendants and their sentences, and leave the public to draw its own conclusions.
Biden is on record as saying no pardon and no clemency for his son. Just as he is on record as saying he will not use the power of immunity the Supremes have given the Presidency.
If he’s a lame duck then I’m thinking he may well do it. It’s not Hunter’s fault that Joe made a life in politics per se, yet his son is being punished beyond normal for being Joe Biden’s son. I suspect that, whatever the President does, it will be what his entire family feels is best to heal on balance.
Smear ‘Nough
With Weiss inside his pressure dome
what did he get rid of
Those dribbled lies that money buys
in hierarchical shoves
He’d like to bleach the whole damn thing
The Smirnov jeopardy
He’d like to lose all its alarms
and do it cleverly
He’d like to carry on with stunts
supplanting circumstance
Not hear it echo on the Hill
like Billy Barr’s own slants
This is IG fodder (if Horowitz is canned by Harris’ new AG).
Isn’t there a presumption of conflict when a source a prosecutor has relied on is exposed as a fraud, making a shambles of said prosecutor’s follow-on investigation?
Hunter is done with. Smirnov should be palmed off on someone (outside of DE) who wasn’t made a fool of by him.
If David Weiss interviewed Smirnov on 9/27/23 as a potential witness against Biden.. and the lies charged to Smirnov were from June 2020, about fabricated conversations from years earlier… and, seemingly, could have been proven as lies back 2020, but for some reason Weiss didn’t… and Weiss declined to pursue the Smirnov angle in 2020, causing Rudy to later whine in October 2020 that Smirnov was the “one witness [interviewed by Brady], really a meaningless witness and [Brady’s] done nothing”….
… how did we end up at a point where Weiss even decided to charge Smirnov? What would have caused Weiss to change course? He starts pursuing the Biden corruption angle, interviews Smirnov as a witness… Is there some other government agency putting information in front of Weiss that forced him into charging Smirnov with crimes that, to a lay person, could have been charged almost 4 years prior?
Congress.
Brady’s testimony to Congress gave something Hunter had means to ask for in discovery (which may still blow up in various judges’ faces), so they had to charge.
That’s my opinion anyway.
I of course like to think my coverage of the Brady transcript played a role.
Yup!
Is there any estimate how much this special counsel and his “Principal Senior Assistant Special Counsel” has already cost for the taxpayers?
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Inspired by Emptywheel’s comment above, I want to do a deep dive on Smirnov/Brady timeline.
Here is a non exhaustive timeline:
3/31/17: Smirnov original 1023, where he neglects to bring up a possible Biden bribe
5/30/19: Through Pruss, Zlochevsky offers Biden dirt in exchange for DOJ relief
7/7/19: Pruss forwards to Rudy & Parnas Zlochevsky’s answers, angering Rudy because not answer he wants to hear
11/22/19: Rudy letter to Sen Judiciary Chair Graham, range of allegations against Biden, Ukraine, and others, made its way to Brady’s office
12/5/19: Rudy meet with Derkach
12/31/19: December 2019, the FBI Washington Field Office closed a “205 B” Kleptocracy case, 205B-~ Serial 7, into Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of Bursima [I’ve only seen Emptwheel report, then recently Devine claimed in book this was the FBI deep state covering up for Biden], sometime in 2019 Smirnov claims call with Zlochevsky bribe mentioned
1/3/20: DuCharme emails Brady about discrete assignment
1/15/20: DuCharme email Brady to interview Rudy on 1/29
1/29/20: Rudy and counsel go to Pittsburgh, interviewed by Brady, FBI, PADAG, Criminal Division and more, mentioned in Rudy’s 5/17/21 filing
1/31/20: investigator email AUSA in Pittsburgh with Brady, he will be getting Rudy’s back up handwritten notes from his interviews, and he just spoke to Rudy who is in Florida where he spoke to “original source” [Smirnov?] who has more info, willing to help, but Rudy won’t discuss over phone
1/31/20: bitoftrade dot com registered
2/4/20: Rudy interviewed by Dietl, says awkwardly Biden bribed by the “big guy” who owns Burisma [Zlochevsky]
2/5/20: Barr memo need to personally approve investigations into presidential candidates
2/5/20: Trump acquitted
2/5/20: Mac Isaac first sends hard drive to father, per discovery answer, making the Garfield package in book a lie
2/11/20: Scott Brady email Ducharme if he has a few minutes to catch up
2/14/20: Rudy interview with Bannon, mentions Zlochevsky bribing Biden
2/27/20: Prosecutors and Brady email about discussing a 12:11am text from Costello
2/28/20: Meeting, per Grassley, of This Foreign Corrupt Practices Act squad included agents from FBI HQ. In February 2020, a meeting took place at the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office with FBI HQ elements.
3/5/20: Brady email Ducharme for 5 mins call
3/6/20: Condon, Arjomand and Khan registered ETT Investment Holding Limited in the UK on 6 March 2020
3/11/20: one instance Smirnov admonished by handler to tell truth
3/31/20: FBI Pittsburgh SAC retires March 2020, FBI Pittsburgh with Acting SAC opens angel assessment at request of DOJ
4/30/20: I believe I was on some initial calls in which Ms. Wolf was a participant. I believe we also had a global meeting with members of various U.S. attorneys’ offices and leadership in the FBI in April that Ms. Wolf attended. Otherwise, after that, all my 15 interaction was with Mr. Weiss directly.
5/19/20: Smirnov text handler Biden should soon be going to jail due to news of Biden’s bribe, “I’ll try to prove it for you bro”
5/31/20: Brady believes he first asks FBI to search databases in May
6/7/20: early June Brady has learned about first 1023 from FBI
6/7/20: around same time, through May into June, permanent SAC, got things moving again
6/15/20: sometime in June, Brady has sit down with SAC, telling him what he has been tasked with and what he wants
6/20/20: Smirnov re-interviewed, brings up 2015-2016 allegations, that he left out of 2017 interview
6/30/20: Condon is no longer Board member of ETT
8/7/20: Bill Evanina statement Russia trying to smear Biden
8/7/20: Smirnov admonished not to obstruct investigations
8/30/20: August, Barr, Brady close CHS assessment
9/5/20: 2 months before election, Brady has decided not to go to Ukraine, let Weiss investigate stateside witnesses and get bank records
9/15/20: Brady report to Rich, vetting assessment, recommends further investigating
10/14/20: After NY Post reports on laptop, Rudy video mentions he gave stuff to Brady, who only interviewed a meaningless witness, referring to Brady & Smirnov without saying name; Barr upset that Rudy got his Hunter stuff released, seeming jealous because it thwarted a competing operation
10/23/20: Weiss meets with Brady about 1023 at insistence of PDAG Donoghue, [so Weiss should theoretically be able to charge Smirnov with lying now right?]
11/2/20: earliest archive of bitoftrade dot com
12/31/20: sometime in 2020 Smirnov received $600k from ETT investment holdings, for shares of Israeli crypo platform Bitoftrade at one point registered at Smirnov’s Las Vegas address, Smirnov was due to help launch
5/31/23: Margot: 2/ ICYMI @grassley has been dropping breadcrumbs for a year. I gathered them all here.
6/5/23: House Republicans threaten Wray with contempt over Smirnov’s 1023
6/7/23: Margot exclusive with Barr disputing Raskin claims about closing assessment
7/20/23: Grassley releases the 1023 with “big guy” bribe allegation
7/26/23: Hunter Biden plea hearing, Wise indicates chasing Smirnov info, which would be at request of FBI
9/27/23: Smirnov interviewed, Weiss present, seemingly a witness against Biden
9/29/23: one instance Smirnov admonished by handler to tell truth
10/31/23: October Smirnov attends the yacht party
10/23/23: Former USA Brady interviewed by House Judiciary Committee
10/26/23: Margot Cleveland has access to Brady transcript, starts spinning
11/6/23: Emptywheel analysis of Brady Transcript, posts transcript to document cloud
https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/11/06/scott-bradys-d-i-s-c-r-e-e-t-vetting-a-marginally-more-credible-witness-than-gal-luft/
12/31/23: December, Smirnov attends another meeting, Hunter said to have photos at Kyiv hotel
2/15/24: Smirnov charged with crimes he committed in 2020
2/16/24: Brady transcript released
2/21/24: CNN reports Smirnov has been an Isreali intelligence source
2/23/24: Nadler letter to IG to investigate Brady