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In a letter sent to House Oversight Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, the CIA refuted their claim that the agency intervened into their investigation of Hunter Biden by blocking IRS and DOJ investigators from interviewing a witness related to the probe.
“Without confirming or denying the existence of any associations or communications, CIA did not prevent or seek to prevent IRS or DOJ from conducting any such interview. The allegation is false,” CIA Director of Congressional Affairs James A. Catella wrote in the letter first reported on by CNN.
But House Republicans pushed back on the CIA's denial, claiming their allegations are true.
As CNN's report points out, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, said Republicans have not presented any evidence for their allegation against the CIA.
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“This is a serious charge, but you have completely ignored my staff’s requests to be allowed to review the information that you say prompted your letter and upon which your letter is putatively and entirely based,” Raskin wrote to Comer on Friday.
Democrats must “assess whether you are ... making our Committee a party to efforts by malign foreign interests to influence American elections,” Raskin wrote, referencing Alexander Smirnov, who is an indicted FBI source.
The witness in question is Kevin Morris, who is Hunter Biden’s lawyer.
Smirnov was charged in February for lying under oath about President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s alleged dealings with a Ukrainian energy company. Republicans platformed Smirnov's allegations multiple times where he claimed he had “extensive foreign ties” with Russian intelligence agencies.
In his letter, Raskin went on to say that it “looks like yet another episode in the Committee’s gullible campaign to amplify the vacuous claims of shadowy Trump World figures and foreign disinformation and propaganda operators.”