FBI Informant Charged With Fabricating Hunter Biden Allegations
Category: News & Politics
Via: kavika • 9 months ago • 36 commentsBy: Nikki McCann Ramirez (Rolling Stone)
Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant, has been charged with fabricating claims related to Hunter Biden's association with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma
By Nikki McCann Ramirez
Nikki McCann Ramirez
- The GOP's Key Hunter Biden Witness Was Just Charged With Making It All Up
- The Fani Willis Misconduct Scandal Just Got a Lot Messier
- Putin Says He Was Disappointed by Tucker Carlson's Soft Questions
View all posts by Nikki McCann Ramirez February 15, 2024 Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Department of Justice has charged a former FBI informant — whose claims Republicans used to bolster allegations of a corrupt bribery scheme involving Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma — with two counts of making false statements to federal authorities.
The indictment, announced Thursday by Special Counsel David Weiss, alleges that Alexander Smirnov "falsely claimed" that during two business meetings in 2015 and/or 2016 "executives associated with Burisma, admitted to him that they hired [Hunter Biden] to 'protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.'"
Smirnov added that the Burisma officials also said they had paid "$5 million each" to Joe and Hunter Biden, so that the then vice president's son would "'take care of all those issues through his dad' referring to a criminal investigation being conducted by the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General into Burisma."
The indictment alleges that "the events that Smirnov first reported to the FBI Agent in June 2020 were fabrications. In truth and fact, the defendant had contact with executives from Burisma in 2017, after the end of the administration when [Joe Biden] had no ability to influence U.S. policy and after the Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016." The DOJ claims that Smirnov "transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations," after expressing bias against Joe Biden's candidacy for the presidency in 2020.
Republicans in Congress have long attempted to leverage the allegations made by Smirnov into an all-out assault against the Biden presidency. In September, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that he would be directing members of his party to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. "Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family," McCarthy said in his announcement. While Smirnov's allegations were known at the time, it had already been well documented that he had not provided additional proof to verify his claims.
During the impeachment inquiry's first hearing later that month, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee repeatedly referred to the claims made by the FBI informant as fact. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told the committee at one point that "we already know the president took bribes from Burisma."
In December, the House of Representatives voted along party lines to formally authorize the impeachment investigation. At the time, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters that the investigation may center around allegations that President Biden and his son profiteered from unethical deals with Burisma.
Smirnov's claims spread far and wide as a centerpiece of the GOP's largely unproven allegations against the Biden family. According to the progressive watchdog Media Matters, Fox News host Sean Hannity "aired at least 85 Hunter Biden segments in 2023" that included allegations that Burisma executives had paid out bribes to the Bidens.
Smirnov was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Feb. 14, and is expected to appear in court for his arraignment on Thursday. He faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted on both counts.
In this article:
- Burisma,
- Hunter Biden,
- Joe Biden
- Politics
- Politics News
OFF-TOPIC COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT WARNING.
Republicans, ''Houston we have a problem''.....
Fabricated evidence?
I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
LOL, say it ain't true
Special Counsel David Weiss = trump appointee...
Trump appointed David Weiss to be a US Attorney. Garland appointed him to be Special Council.
Indeed
Hat tip to Nerm.
oh that's right, the semantics police appear when the general info can't be debunked...
Ya!
Now we will hear
"DEEP STATE"
Its too bad Biden cant sue Comer and Jordan.
The dimwit duo of the republican party.
Rules for spies
1 Never trust a Russian.
2 Never trust an informant
3 Walk away from any Russian informants with political "dirt".
Repeat, rinse, repeat.
4 Never trust a man named after a Russian Vodka, he's probably full of it.
In this case he is overflowing with it.
[removed]
We will await your apology for spreading disinformation on this, after months of you spreading Smirnov's lies like fertilizer!
Funny how all informants against the Brandon family get hounded by Garland and the DOJ.
After the shit the FBI/DOJ/Clinton put this country through with Steele- Democrats can STFU and go far far far far far away.
China sounds good- considering how much they love Xi, Chinese spies, and Chinese money.
Just like clockwork, a comment somewhere between the deep state, Chinese conspiracy, and graft by the Biden's.
And next we'll hear about Joe's mental state as a way to move the goal posts. He's both feeble minded and a criminal mastermind at the same time. /s
He is talented isn't he?
CDS.
The folks who assemble the DSM of psychiatric disorders will be compiling data for years to come for those suffering from TDS/CDS/HBDS(Hunter Biden) mental disorders.
There's no standard like a double standard. Alexander Smirnov gets hounded for lying because the political target was a Democrat. On the other side of that double standard, FBI offered Christopher Steele $1 million to prove dossier claims, senior FBI analyst testifies . <== Get smarter here, click the link.
Democrats' double standard is safe unless their doddering, incompetent leader gets in the way. Democrats are too damned feeble minded to prosecute, anyway.
The Special Council was appointed by Trump.
Well, that's demonstrably false. Trump appointed David Weiss to be a US Attorney. It was Merrick Garland that appointed Weiss to be Special Counsel.
Claiming that Trump appointed Weiss as Special Counsel is a bald faced lie. In a Republican administration such a claim would be called out as a lie. But in the Biden administration this is just 'business as usual'.
You are correct, but the end result is that Trump appointed him as a US Attorney and Garland appointed him as special after Republicans cry and whined to have a special council be appointed..Beware what you wish for, now Comer looks like an ass and the case is in the toilet.
You're the one that called it a ''bald faced lie'' and the Biden administration had nothing to do with my comment. Are you stuck in word salad again?
I'm pretty sure you know what I meant, comrade...
[deleted]
Those with sense know exactly what he means.
[deleted]
Careful. That's beginning to sound like praise for Trump. AG Garland has to call upon Trump appointees when people of integrity are needed. Or is that because Biden's appointees are too busy prosecuting political opponents to have time to defend Biden?
[deleted] The Biden administration has everything to do with appointing Weiss to be Special Counsel in charge of sweeping Biden's dirt under the rug. Democrats really are treating Alexander Smirnov quite differently than they treated Christopher Steele. Democrats are using the Federal government to try to convince the public that Steele's lies are truth and that Smirnov's truths are lies.
He was probably picked by Garland because he was a Republican and a Trump appointee to avoid charges/label that it's a dem investigating a dem.
Of course Garland had everything to do with appointing Weiss as SC, that is very obvious.
Ok, I'd run with that if I were you.
And after all of that we are back to Smirnov is being changed with lying by a SC that was appointed as a US Attorney by DJT.
A lot of wasted time and words to end up with the same result.
Cheers.
Weiss a republican? The only way Weiss was appointed by Trump was because the two democrat senators of Delaware "blue slipped" him and Trump went along with it, "Sure, OK fine". So did the senators send up a republican nominee, seems highly unlikely.
Your deflection technique needs improvement, it sounds like a ''Bull Durham'' fantasy.
Dammit! I was just about to post that this needs a Special Counsel, and I seem to remember one who specializes in finding nothing...
And good old ''Bull Durham'' was an expert at finding nothing and he found a lot of nothing.
The PD&D+Delusion is staggering.