Investigative journalist Lee Smith of the Hudson Institute and the Weekly Standard has revealed that House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff boasts some shifty ties to a possibly corrupt Ukrainian businessman who was born in the former Soviet Union.

Lee specifically found that Schiff boasts ties to a Soviet-born businessman, Igor Pasternak, who serves as the founder and CEO of Worldwide Aeros Corp., a company that manufactures blimps and weapons for both commercial clients and governments.

Though Pasternak was born in the former Soviet Union and reportedly launched his first company in Ukraine roughly 25 years ago, he suddenly relocated to an area near Schiff’s district in California. Then, just six years back, it appears he and Schiff suddenly became close pals.

“In 2013, Pasternak hosted a fundraiser for Schiff. No big deal, right?” Fox News host Laura Ingraham revealed during a discussion with Lee this past Tuesday.

A flyer from the event shows that the fundraiser was held at Pasternak’s home in “honor” of Schiff, who at the time had been running for California’s 28th Congressional District:

“But that’s until you realize how Adam Schiff’s priorities completely shifted. Before this time, Schiff rarely, if ever, mentioned Ukraine. But after the fundraiser, he used multiple television appearances to basically demand that we send money and arms to them,” Ingraham continued.

Moreover, Schiff did so in defiance of the Obama administration, as noted in a 2015 report from The New York Times entitled, “Defying Obama, Many in Congress Press to Arm Ukraine.”

His efforts appear to have been successful. According to reports, Aeros received $60 million from Obama’s Department of Defense for one of its projects.

According to Lee, it’s all part of a larger pattern.

“I think it’s part of a larger pattern we’ve seen over the last three years regarding the entire Russiagate hoax and operation,” he said. “First of all, we have Christopher Steele, who we know was working for a Russian oligarch. We had the producers of the Steele dossier from Fusion GPS, and they were also working for Russian oligarchs.”

“Of course, the press has picked up on none of these things. These are the different things they turned a blind eye to and instead they fabricate relations and alliances between the Trump team and all sorts of figures in Russia and in Ukraine.”

Listen to his discussion with Ingraham below:

(Source: Fox News

Lee added that one of Pasternak’s projects is now under investigation.

“There is another issue, as well, with Mr. Pasternak, and I want to be clear about this. I think it is something we should start looking into and learn more about,” he said.

“Mr. Pasternak started getting involved in doing deals with the Ukrainian defense industry, starting at the time the conflict began in 2014, and now one of his projects with the Ukrainian defense industry is under investigation. It’s not him, and it’s not his company itself, but it’s the deal that’s under investigation in the Ukraine. And that investigation started July 22.”

“So I think there are different threads we need to pull out here and find out exactly what is going on, especially since representative Schiff is throwing baseless charges.”

News of Schiff’s ties to Pasternak comes amid the reemergence of a shocking audio clip of the Democrat lawmaker agreeing to accept damaging information about the president from two Russian radio hosts/pranksters posing as Ukrainian officials.

“In the clip, Schiff, D-Calif., tells the Russian shock-jocks, who were posing as Andriy Parubiy, the former speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, that he would be willing to accept dirt on Trump from the Ukrainian,” Fox News reported on Tuesday, two days after Rep. Matt Gaetz highlighted the clip on Twitter.

“The Russian radio hosts, Vladimir ‘Vovan’ Kuznetzov and Alexey ‘Lexus’ Stolyarov, who have close ties to the Kremlin, told Schiff that the Kremlin had naked photos of Trump and that ‘Parubiy’ could provide audio of [two famous figures] discussing the photos,” Fox’s report continued.

“They also told Schiff that former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn had met with another Russian to talk about how to prevent the photos from going public.”

Schiff bought the narrative hook, line, and sinker, and displayed fervent interest in obtaining these photos from the Kremlin, i.e., the center of Russian power.

After the clip first went public last year, Schiff denied any wrongdoing.

“Before agreeing to take the call, and immediately following it, the committee informed appropriate law-enforcement and security personnel of the conversation, and of our belief that it was probably bogus,” his spokesperson told the media.

But that wasn’t how he acted during the call. Moreover, reports confirmed that a member of the congressman’s staff had “continued correspondence with the pranksters via email, seeking the damaging material on Trump,” as reported at the time by the Washington Examiner.

“The pranksters said they would transfer the material to Schiff through the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, D.C.,” the outlet added.

Listen to the full call below: