The media is very excited that Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant, was arrested after being accused of making false allegations against Hunter Biden. It’s alleged that he has ties to Russian intelligence (and how many wealthy Russians who operate abroad in political circles don’t?) and that means it’s all over.

‘There’s No Question This Is Dead’: Biden Impeachment Inquiry Falls Apart – Time Magazine

I reported on the Burisma allegations at the time, but some of the material seemed too easy and convenient, and when something says exactly what you want to hear, it’s a good idea to be suspicious of it.

That said, Smirnov was at best the cherry on the cake. Even if there’s no cherry, there’s still one big cake.

The strangest part of this may be the claims that Smirnov’s alleged FSB ties discredit the allegations against Biden. All of Russiagate was pretty much the work of Russian intelligence assets. That’s not surprising since if you want to do any kind of intelligence gathering in Russia or Ukraine, the odds are excellent that you’ll run into either intel assets, people who act like they know too much, or into the real deal.

It wasn’t that long ago that Igor Danchenko, the source for the Steele dossier, was arrested in the Durham case. Among the pieces of evidence was that a Clintonite believed he had worked for the FSB.

“He is too young for KGB. But I think he worked for FSB. Since he told me he spent two years in Iran. And when I first met him he knew more about me than I did,” the Clintonworlder wrote in an email.

Danchenko’s case, like much of Durham’s work, ran up against the immovable wall of a D.C. jury and he was acquitted, but the Durham case did turn up FBI materials on his alleged Russian intelligence ties.

FBI initiated a ‘preliminary investigation’ into the defendant. The FBI converted its investigation into a ‘full investigation’ after learning that the defendant had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers,” Durham’s unsealed filing reads.

And that’s before we even start dealing with the Dolan situation.

The media is well aware of this. It chose to ignore it and to argue that Danchenko’s alleged Russian intel ties didn’t impact the credibility of Russiagate, but Smirnov’s alleged ties somehow take down the entire Hunter Biden investigation even though it’s only one small element of it.