FBI informant who lied about Biden 'bribes' pleads guilty
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A former informant has pleaded guilty to lying to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about a fake bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Alexander Smirnov, 44, also admitted tax evasion after not reporting more than $2m (£1.58m) in income.
His claims became the basis of an impeachment investigation in Congress which centred around the false claims that the Bidens made millions in bribes from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
But Smirnov admitted he made the story up, and pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on Monday as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
Smirnov, a dual US-Israeli citizen, had been an FBI informant for more than a decade when he made the allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, saying that Joe and Hunter Biden each received $5m from the energy company.
Prosecutors said Smirnov was motivated by "bias" against President Biden and that he spun his "routine and unextraordinary business contacts" with Burisma into tales about bribery that were "fabrications".
The FBI investigated his statements but within months recommended the case be closed without any legal action taken against the Bidens.
But the allegations refused to die, and became the basis for a Republican-led drive to investigate President Biden, including an effort to make Smirnov's initial statement public.
Prosecutors say that when he was re-interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023, Smirnov doubled down on his claims.
Smirnov was arrested in Nevada as he returned to the US from an overseas trip in February 2024.
According to court documents, he had ties with Russian intelligence and used his more than $2m in unreported income to buy a Las Vegas condominium, a lease on a Bentley car, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of clothes, jewellery and accessories.
The case was brought by Special Counsel David Weiss - who has overseen an investigation of Hunter Biden.
Joe Biden issued a pardon for his son, who faced potential prison time for tax evasion and lying on a form about his drug addiction when he bought a gun.
Smirnov will be sentenced in January. The plea agreement is subject to approval by a federal judge.
He faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison and a $1m fine, however prosecutors and defence lawyers have agreed to a sentence of between four and six years and a restitution payment of $675,502, according to the plea deal.
The BBC contacted Smirnov's lawyers for comment.
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What? Lies about the "Biden crime family?" Imagine that...
maga duped by russian misinformation, for 8+ years? say it isn't so ...
shocking, I tell you, just shocking ...
gee, what a team comer and jordan are in the house. an ohio pedophile and a kentucky dipshit with a family tree that looks a palm tree. they were made for each other ...
The far right wanted to hurt Biden so much that they never considered the source, even though many knew that the informer was a paid liar and thief.
All they knew was he was an FBI informant . His actual name was not originally released, just the summary of his report. He was supposedly an informant with a good track record.
Is it your argument that all FBI sources are paid liars and thieves? Weird we even have an FBI is all it does it gather misinformation, huh?
I think it is good this guy is being held accountable.
Now all we beed is a non biased FBI to go after the 51 intelligence people who signed a letter saying Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation.
I agree he definitely should be in jail, but democrats should be honest about who the source was, what republicans knew about him when they brought this particular allegation public and how he fits into the larger picture of the Bidens corruption.
So many progressives lie about pretty much all of that.
the political posers on the right don't care, it isn't their money they're wasting ...
LOL, well there goes the evidence of the ‘’Biden Crime Family’’….so he’s a dual US/Israeli citizen, think that he may be working for Bibi?
throw that maga bullshit story on the FOX news propaganda trash heap along with voter fraud...
fucking scum of the earth liars ...
Without a doubt, Bibi couldn't get to Mira Lago fast enough. Talk about two of kind, waiting for the results of Bibi's corruption trial.
I read this the other day. The right wing populists will ignore this at best, or try to spin it and beg Trump to pardon him at worst.
that rwnj senate fossil chuck grassley is still pitching this dreck ...
Grassley has admitted he could find no criminal evidence.
dancing around the maga toilet without falling in ...
This story broke a few days ago, to almost zero attention paid by the media.
this story would never show up on any maga media ...
Yes, but to be fair there is nothing new in the story except the plea deal.
Just a quick search shows BBC, Fox, Axios, AP, CBS, NBC, USA, The Daily Beast, The Hill, Yahoo, Reuters and others have had the story. Who did you need to see cover it or were you looking for wall to wall coverage to go on for a week or so?
I can vaguely remember that being repeated on NT about 50 times a day.
Well, that clears that scandal up. Now we need to know how much the Biden's received from China for favors and influence.
while you're at it, look into trumpco's chinese trademarks and chinese bank accounts ...