A blockbuster story in The Guardian connects close business and personal associates of Donald Trump to a $600,000 payment to jailed former FBI witness Alexander Smirnov. But will the media cover it sufficiently? That’s the question Trump opponents are asking as the pace of news and Trump’s trial schedule pushes relevant stories to the bottom of the mainstream media feeds.
Alexander Smirnov – Jim Comer’s indicted Russian asset – was paid $600K by Trump associates the year he lied to the FBI about Biden and Burisma. Here’s my shocked face. https://t.co/xWgPZrmbvd
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) March 14, 2024
Smirnov is now in jail, considered a flight risk after being indicted for lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and President Joe Biden about their allegedly corrupt business dealings with the Ukraine energy company Burisma. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), House Oversight Committee chair, had used the innuendo from Smirnov’s statements as fuel for the GOP-led impeachment inquiry into Biden. (Since Smirnov’s indictment, Comer has downplayed the importance of Smirnov’s role in the pursuit of the Biden criminal charges.)
When Smirnov was rearrested in February, CNN reported he had “extensive contacts in Russia and elsewhere, prosecutors said, and lied to authorities about his ‘access to over $6 million in liquid funds — more than enough money for him to live comfortably overseas for the rest of his life.’”
The Guardian article reveals that one-tenth of that available money comes from a payment made to Smirnov by a U.S. company — Economic Transformation Technologies (ETT) — “connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents.” The payment was made in 2020, at the same time “Smirnov began lying to the FBI about the Bidens, according to the indictment.”
The company’s CEO is American Christopher Condon, “who is also one of three shareholders in ETT Investment Holding Limited in London,” established in 2020 and now dissolved. The other two are the “Pakistani American investor Shahal Khan and Farooq Arjomand, a former chairman and current board member of Damac Properties in Dubai who is also listed as an adviser on ETT’s American website,” according to The Guardian. “Arjomand have ties to Donald Trump through Trump associates and Damac, a major Middle East developer that has partnered with Trump for a decade.” (See: The Trump Estates at DAMAC Hills.)
Journalist Jacqueline Sweet captioned her tweet introducing the article: “SCOOP: An American company that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents.”
SCOOP: An American company that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents.
Me in @GuardianUS https://t.co/J39liPkAiC
— Jacqueline Sweet (@JSweetLI) March 14, 2024
So far, CNN, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have not elevated the story as Fani Willis, Aileen Cannon, Lara Trump and Chuck Schumer dominate political coverage.
Excepting Comer’s backtracking on Smirnov’s importance, the news would seem to support, at the very least, White House Counsel Edward Siskel‘s request to House Speaker Mike Johnson to end the impeachment inquiry. “It is obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker,” Siskel wrote in a letter this week to Johnson. “This impeachment is over. There is too much important work to be done for the American people to continue wasting time on this charade.”