President Donald Trump’s obsession with proving he won the 2020 election against Joe Biden is spilling over into the war he launched on Iran — and it’s helping Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rachel Maddow says.

Mother Jones reports that Trump’s Justice Department is attempting to get Alexander Smirnov released from prison. The FBI informant, who was in close contact with Russian intelligence, was behind the explosive charges that Biden and his son Hunter accepted $5 million bribes from a Ukrainian energy company.

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The false claims led House Republicans to try to impeach Biden ahead of the 2024 election. Smirnoff was later indicted for providing false information to the FBI in 2020 in the run-up to that year’s presidential election. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. 

“Todd Blanche, Trump’s hand-picked number two official at the Justice Department, is trying to help Russia, and reportedly Russian intelligence, while Russia is using Russian intelligence to help Iran kill American troops and target American facilities in the Middle East,” Maddow explained.

During the 2020 campaign, Republicans, including now-convicted felon Rudy Giuliani, hyped up a debunked allegation that as vice-president under then-President Barack Obama, Biden threatened to withhold a $1 billion loan guarantee to Ukraine, unless the government quashed an investigation of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that recruited Hunter Biden to its board, Mother Jones reported.

As that conspiracy theory played out, Smirnoff shared the $5 million bribe claim with his FBI handlers, an allegation they dismissed. Following Trump’s 2020 election loss, an FBI source shared Smirnoff’s interview with House Republicans, who called it a smoking gun implicating the Biden “crime family.” After Republicans launched their failed impeachment attempt against Biden, the Justice Department indicted Smirnoff, proving he was lying to his handlers as he peddled the false information likely provided by Russian intelligence.

“’Smirnov’s contacts with Russian officials who are affiliated with Russian intelligence services are not benign,’ the prosecutors said — a suggestion that Smirnov had actively been in cahoots with the Russians,” according to Mother Jones.

Despite the Russian connection, or maybe because of it, when Trump returned to office, his Justice Department made an about-face, coming to Smirnoff’s aid in trying to earn his release.

Then two weeks ago, Blanche personally signed a brief supporting Smirnov’s attempt to throw out his sentence and withdraw his guilty plea — just days after the U.S. launched its attack on Iran, and amid reports that Russian intelligence is aiding Iran targeting Americans in the war.

In the interim, Trump has also lifted sanctions on Russian oil sales, a financial boon to Putin amid his grinding war on Ukraine.

“Russia now is not just getting rich off of Trump’s war in Iran. Russia is outright helping Iran kill US troops and target U.S. facilities in the Middle East,” Maddow said.

“Maybe our president just can’t stop himself from acting to help Russia, even when Russia is acting to kill Americans. Maybe he just can’t stop himself. It just feels so good, he can’t stop,” Maddow said, dumbfounded.

“But,” she asked, “doesn’t it seem like in the middle of this war, he should be able to stop himself from, at least helping Iran, from helping the Iranian regime, which he has just declared war on?”

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