House Republicans are downplaying the role an FBI informant’s corruption allegations about Joe Biden played in their impeachment inquiry into the president after the tipster was indicted on charges of lying about the claim, which may have originated with Russian intelligence officials.

Alexander Smirnov, 43, was charged last week with two counts of making false statements to the FBI when he said executives with the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016 in an effort to have Ukraine’s prosecutor general fired so that a corruption investigation into Burisma could be squashed.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors revealed Smirnov admitted in an interview after his arrest that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.

Smirnov’s allegations have been cited repeatedly by House Republicans as they investigate possible links between the president and his family’s foreign business affairs. 

On Wednesday, the chairs of two of the committees leading the impeachment inquiry — the Judiciary Committee’s Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and the Oversight Committee’s James Comer, R-Ky. — insisted Smirnov’s allegations were not central to their investigation.

“It doesn't change those fundamental facts,” Jordan told CNN while denying that his own claims about a bribery scheme are false. 

However, in an interview last month with Fox News, Jordan called Smirnov’s allegations the “most corroborating evidence we have.”

Comer told Newsmax on Wednesday night Smirnov “wasn’t an important part of this investigation because I didn't even know who he was. All I knew was there was a 1023 [FBI form] that alleged bribery. My investigation’s about all the money the Bidens have taken from China, from Romania, from Kazakhstan.”

House Republicans have claimed to have substantial evidence implicating the president but to date have produced no solid proof that the Joe Biden profited from his son’s or brother’s business deals or that their professional interests influenced Joe Biden’s actions in office. 

President Biden has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

House Republicans are now blaming the Justice Department and FBI over Smirnov’s claims.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday, the Oversight Committee wrote, “The DOJ and FBI have a lot of explaining to do about their reliance on the informant whose allegations were included in the FBI-generated FD-1023.”

Both Jordan and Comer have stressed that they were told the informant was credible.

The FBI declined to comment on the Oversight Committee’s post.

When House Republicans pressed the FBI to turn over the FD-1023 document last spring, the bureau said the claims were “unverified” and “incomplete.”

Meanwhile, some House Democrats are attacking Republicans for relying on possible Russian disinformation in their impeachment efforts.

“Wittingly or unwittingly, House Republicans have been acting as an agent or an asset of Russian intelligence for Vladimir Putin,” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., told CNN on Tuesday night. 

“If they continue with this investigation, they are simply doing the work of Vladimir Putin to help Donald Trump win an election in November,” he added. “That's where we are.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told reporters Wednesday: "It appears like the whole thing is not only, obviously, false and fraudulent, but a product of Russian disinformation and propaganda. And that's been the motor force behind this investigation for more than a year.”

Raskin said the “impeachment investigation essentially ended” with the FBI’s revelation this week that Smirnov had contacts in Russian intelligence. House Republicans have made clear they are pressing on with their inquiry, although Comer conceded last week to Spectrum News that the House may not hold an impeachment vote after all.

On Wednesday, the president’s brother, James Biden, testified behind closed doors before the Oversight and Judiciary committees that Joe Biden “never had any involvement” in the business dealings of other members of his family. 

Comer told Newsmax he did not find James Biden to be believable.

Hunter Biden is schedule to testify on Capitol Hill on Feb. 28. Speaking to reporters outside the Capitol in December, Hunter Biden said, “There is no evidence to support the allegations my father was involved in my business because it did not happen.”

Hunter Biden has previously insisted his business pursuits in other countries were legal, although he has acknowledged his career likely benefited from his family ties.

Note: This article was updated to say the FBI declined to comment.