House Republicans reached a critical point this week in their bid to impeach Joe Biden: a closed-door interview with the Presidentā€™s younger brother James. But the coveted testimony was dramatically overshadowed by another development: The Justice Department indicting one of the impeachment inquiryā€™s lead informants for lying to the FBI about the Biden family with dirt from Russian intelligence.

The revelation was the latest in a series of embarrassing setbacks for the House GOPā€™s impeachment effort. In July, one of its whistleblowers was arrested for acting as a Chinese agent. In August, Hunter Bidenā€™s longtime associate Devon Archerā€”who House Oversight Chair James Comer said could become a ā€œheroā€ of the probeā€”testified that President Biden had no involvement in his sonā€™s business dealings. At the inquiryā€™s first public hearing in September, Comerā€™s star witness, conservative lawyer Jonathan Turley, said there wasnā€™t enough evidence to impeach Biden. And on Tuesday, federal prosecutors claimed that FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who made false bribery allegations against President Biden and his son Hunter, had ā€œextensive and extremely recent contactsā€ with the Kremlin.