Day: February 17, 2024

A former FBI informant is charged with lying to officials about the Biden family’s business dealings in Ukraine.

Alexander Smirnov was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday for allegedly making false statements and manufacturing false records.

The charges were announced by Special Counsel David Weiss, who has charged Hunter Biden with tax fraud and firearm violations separately—Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Who is Alexander Smirnov?

Smirnov, 43, has been an FBI informant since 2010, according to the 37-page indictment. He was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Then-United States Vice-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden attend a women’s ice hockey preliminary game on February 14, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. Informant Alexander Smirnov falsely told the FBI the Bidens were paid…
Then-United States Vice-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden attend a women’s ice hockey preliminary game on February 14, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. Informant Alexander Smirnov falsely told the FBI the Bidens were paid $5 million each by Ukrainian energy company Burisma, prosecutors alleged. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

A resident of Los Angeles, California, few details on Smirnov’s life and career have emerged.

Republicans in the House have opened a formal process for impeachment into President Joe Biden, accusing him of profiting from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings during his time as vice president. There has been no evidence of this.

When Republicans learned of Smirnov’s claims, they demanded details from FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. Rep. James Comer, the House Oversight Committee Chairman, threatened to hold Wray in contempt of Congress if he did not give more details about documents that contained the allegations. A deal was eventually reached.

In July, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley released document “FD-1023.” This document did not name Smirnov, but named a “CHS” or “confidential human source.”

In a statement reported by multiple media outlets, Comer said “The FBI told the committee the confidential human source was credible and trusted.”

Newsweek has approached Comer for further comment.

The FBI said it had no comment when asked by Newsweek when it became aware of the alleged lack of veracity to Smirnov’s claims. The Bureau has been approached for further comment.

Grassley’s office was approached in relation to his July release. His team told Newsweek the indictment “confirms several points Senator Grassley has made repeatedly.”

Grassley also said the Justice Department should release “all the underlying evidence” in the Biden investigation. Newsweek has approached the DoJ for comment.

CNN reported Comer said that “the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023.”

Newsweek has approached the White House for comment.

Indictment

Referenced in the indictment are alleged “fabrications” relating to claims made to the FBI in 2020. These claims alleged that executives at Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid “$5 million each” to the Bidens when Joe Biden was vice president under Barack Obama.

The White House has always denied claims President Biden ever used his elected offices to aid his son’s business interests.

The grand jury indictment announcement this week is a blow to Republican efforts to impeach the president.

Democrats have called for the inquiry to be dropped altogether and had done even before the Smirnov indictment was released.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement: “For months we have warned that Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts.”

Lowell was approached for further comment.

But Comer added that the impeachment inquiry is “based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings,” CNN reported.

Smirnov’s claims were called “a fabrication, an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts” in the indictment. Hunter Biden was previously a paid board member of Burisma.

Weiss, appointed as a U.S. attorney for the district of Delaware by Donald Trump, said in a release: “The defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against [Joe Biden] after expressing bias against [Biden] and his presidential candidacy.”

It added that Smirnov allegedly “repeated some of his false claims” when he was interviewed by officials in September 2023 and also “changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.”

Weiss was appointed to lead the investigation into Hunter Biden by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

WASHINGTON — An FBI informant has been charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Alexander Smirnov falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said in an indictment. 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.

Smirnov, 43, appeared in court in Las Vegas briefly Thursday after being charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. He did not enter a plea. The judge ordered the courtroom cleared after federal public defender Margaret Wightman Lambrose requested a closed hearing for arguments about sealing court documents. She declined to comment on the case.

The informant’s claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. An attorney for Hunter Biden, who is expected to give a deposition later this month, said the charges show the probe is “based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses.”

Read More: ‘Absolutely Shocking’: Impeachment Experts Say Biden Inquiry May Be Weakest in U.S. History

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, called for an end to the Biden impeachment inquiry.

Raskin said the allegations from the Republicans against Biden “have always been a tissue of lies built on conspiracy theories.” He called on Speaker Mike Johnson, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Republicans “to stop promoting this nonsense and end their doomed impeachment inquiry.”

Comer, R-Ky., downplayed the importance of the informant, who had figured centrally to the start of the probe.

“To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023,” Comer said in a statement, referring to the form documenting Smirnov’s allegations.

The chairman said the inquiry “is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony,” including interviews this week. He said the committee will continue to “follow the facts” and determine whether to proceed with articles of impeachment against Biden.

Read More: How a Ukrainian Oligarch Wanted by U.S. Authorities Helped Giuliani Attack Biden

In the indictment, prosecutors say that Smirnov had contact with Burisma executives, but it was routine and actually took place took place in 2017, after President Barack Obama and Biden, his vice president, had left office—when Biden would have had no ability to influence U.S. policy.

Smirnov “transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy,” the indictment said.

He repeated some of the false claims when he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023 and changed his story about others and “promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,” prosecutors said.

If convicted, Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

The charges were filed by Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who has separately charged Hunter Biden with firearm and tax violations.

Read More: Hunter Biden Faces 9 New Criminal Charges. Here’s What to Know

The Burisma allegations became a flashpoint in Congress as Republicans pursing investigations of President Joe Biden and his family demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations. They acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if the allegations were true.

Comer had subpoenaed the FBI last year for the so-called FD-1023 document as Republicans deepened their probe of Biden and his son Hunter ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Working alongside Comer, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa released an unclassified document that Republicans at the time claimed was significant in their investigation of Hunter Biden. It added to information that had been widely aired during Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial involving Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election. The White House said at the time that the claims had been debunked for years.

The impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son’s business dealings has lagged in the House, but the panel is pushing ahead with its work.

Hunter Biden is expected to appear before the committee later this month. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, said he had long warned the probe was based on “lies told by people with political agendas, not facts. We were right and the air is out of their balloon.”

A judge set a detention hearing for Feb. 20 for Smirnov, who was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after arriving in the U.S. from overseas.

—Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.