Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said House members were "warned" about the credibility of FBI informant Alexander Smirnov's claims that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016.
Smirnov last week was charged with fabricating the multimillion-dollar bribery scheme. His statements about the Biden family's alleged dealings drove the GOP-led push for an impeachment inquiry against the president.
"We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness's testimony. … We were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known," Buck said Wednesday on CNN's "The Source."
"And yet, people, my colleagues went out and talk to the public about how this was credible and how it was damning and how it proved President Biden's — at the time Vice President Biden's — complicity in receiving bribes."
Buck added: "It appears to absolutely be false, and to really undercut the nature of the charges. We've always been looking for a link between what Hunter Biden received in terms of money and Joe Biden's activities or Joe Biden receiving money. This clearly is not a credible link at this point."
Smirnov told his handler that an executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems," according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Smirnov, in fact, had only routine business dealings with the company in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he "expressed bias" against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate.
Buck said if the impeachment inquiry was based on Smirnov, "it undermines the credibility of this impeachment.
"I will say that it's suspicious that anybody would pay Hunter Biden as much money as they paid him without any expertise in the oil and gas industry ... so those things are suspicious. But again, there's no link directly to [then-] Vice President Biden's activities."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.