AOC says Republicans used 'Russian intelligence' to try to impeach Joe Biden as Stephen Colbert asks her if the GOP is spreading 'propaganda' from the Kremlin

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry took evidence from 'Russian Intelligence' after two GOP House members said that Russian propaganda has 'infected' the party. 

Late night host Stephen Colbert asked her if she agreed with the Republicans' damning assessment of their own party.  

'I think if you turn on any House Oversight hearing in the last year, you will see Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and all these folks engaged in wildly propagandistic rhetoric,' the New York Democrat told Stephen Colbert.  

'We just went through an impeachment attempt on the president of the United States that was started with a source that Republicans used that was in communication with Russian intelligence,' she went on. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry took evidence from 'Russian Intelligence' after two GOP House members said that Russian propaganda has 'infected' their party

Late night host Stephen Colbert asked her if she agreed with the Republicans' damning assessment of their own party

Informant Alexander Smirnov is charged with falsely telling his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015. The claim became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry of President Biden in Congress.

Smirnov´s claims have played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden.

Republicans pursuing investigations of the Bidens demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the unverified allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn't confirm if they were true.    

'So you have not just the bottom bench here, you have the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer take "evidence" and account from someone who was working with the Russian intelligence and tried to impeach and remove the president of the United States over it. This is serious!' Ocasio-Cortez went on. 

Over the weekend Intel Chairman Mike Turner backed up Foreign Affairs chairman Michael McCaul's claim that Russian propaganda has 'infected' Republicans. 

It's absolutely true,' Turner said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 

'We see directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor.'

'To the extent that this propaganda takes hold, it makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle,' he added. 

Meanwhile Comer hit back against accusations that his impeachment probe is fizzling out,' and insisted it has been 'successful' though it does not seem to be on track for a vote to impeach the president. 

'It's not true. And I think this investigation has been one of the most successful Congressional investigations in history,' he said on Fox News on Tuesday. 

Last month he suggested he would pursue criminal referrals to the Justice Department instead of impeachment. 

'I want to hold accountability,' the Kentucky Republican said on NewsMax. 'What does real accountability look like? Does it look like impeaching Joe Biden in the House and then the Senate tabling it?'

'Or does it mean providing real criminal referrals to the Department of Justice? I think the latter,' Comer, chairman of the Oversight Committee, added. 

'We want to hold accountability and I believe that the best path to accountability is criminal referrals.'

A criminal referral would largely amount to a symbolic letter suggesting to the Department of Justice suggesting prosecutors probe specific crimes they believe have been committed. 

The impeachment inquiry's path forward is murky after House Republicans hauled in President Biden's brother James and son Hunter, along with Hunter's former associates and thousands of pages of documents and records.