President Joe Biden smiled wide when a reporter asked him about the FBI informant who has been indicted by a Justice Department special counsel for allegedly lying about him and his family.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, was charged with two counts of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record for information he fed the FBI about Joe and Hunter Biden’s ties to a Ukrainian firm. It’s a major setback for Republican lawmakers who repeatedly cited the claims about the Biden family’s overseas business dealings in their push to impeach the president.
“An FBI informant at the center of the impeachment inquiry into you has been indicted for allegedly lying. Your reaction to that and should the inquiry be dropped?” NBC News’ Peter Alexander asked after the president concluded remarks about the reported death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the White House Friday.
“He is lying and it should be dropped,” Biden replied. “It’s just been an outrageous effort from the beginning.”
