On February 16, it was widely reported that Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, previously used by House Republicans to support their impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden, was revealed to be a Russian agent. Smirnov had falsely claimed that Hunter Biden leveraged his position on a Ukrainian firm's board to benefit himself and his father. He was subsequently arrested and charged with making a false statement.
Following that revelation that, President Joe Biden has insisted that the inquiry be dropped.
"It's been an outrageous effort from the beginning," Biden said.
House Republicans allege Hunter Biden engaged in "influence peddling" while Biden was vice president and allege the president himself was also involved.
To date, there has been no evidence that Biden enjoyed any financial benefit from his son's business deals with foreign companies.
Prosecutors say Smirnov falsely told FBI agents in 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in bribes in 2015 or 2016 to protect the company from investigators.
Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if he's convicted, the Justice Department says.
Since then, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat of the House Oversight Committee, called for an end to the inquiry.
Accoridng to Politico Playbook, Rep, Raskin disclosed that, "With any luck, this is the end of the most spectacular failure in the history of congressional investigations," Raskin said. "The whole thing is just an embarrassment and a disgrace, and it has a very strong whiff of Russian propaganda now."
Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, responding via tweet, claimed the committee's efforts do not rely on the informant.
According to US News and World Report, the House impeachment inquiry is at an impasse, lacking the political push from Republicans to go forward, but facing internal pressure from that same group to deliver something after months of work.
Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer has stated that he is interested in pursuing criminal referrals of alleged wrongdoing by the Biden family to the Justice Department.
Hunter Biden is not expected to appear for Wednesday's public hearing after testifying in private last month.
Rep. Comer is already winding up for the pitch when he doesn't. "If he does not show up, then it's not going to end well for the Bidens," Comer said over the weekend on Fox News.
He said, "There's going to be multiple criminal referrals."
The lengthy GOP-led probe that was launched after Republicans seized control of the House in January.
Comer's dilemma is whether to pursue the impeachment inquiry and comb through Biden's business dealings and life or move on to something else.
The White House has called the inquiry a "charade" and told Republicans to "move on."
Wednesday's hearing will continue looking at Hunter Biden's business dealings.
Republicans will seek testimony from Jason Galanis, a man serving a federal prison sentence in Alabama for fraud, and Tony Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden associate who has his own claims against the Bidens which first came to light in the 2020 Trump-Biden presidential debate.
Democrats will call on Lev Parnas, a convicted felon who was part of Trump's first impeachment as a Rudy Guiliani associate. Parnas has since played a key role in dispelling the House GOP's main claim of bribery against the Bidens as simply not true.
"Who better than Lev Parnas himself - Rudy Giuliani's right-hand man on the original mission to smear Joe Biden - to tell the story of how this campaign of lies and slander works?" said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, in a statement.
