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.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.