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WASHINGTON — An FBI informant has been indicted by a Justice Department special counsel on charges of lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s overseas dealings.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, was charged with two counts of making false statements about information he provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and creating false and fictitious records.
Smirnov, who is listed in the indictment as an FBI informant since 2010, was arrested Wednesday at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas after a federal grand jury in the Central District of California returned the indictment.
The charges were brought by special counsel David Weiss, who previously brought tax and gun-related charges against Hunter Biden.
Smirnov said in June 2020, when Joe Biden was a presidential candidate, that executives at Ukrainian energy company Burisma had hired Hunter Biden in 2015 and 2016. He is accused of falsely claiming that he admitted “to protect him from a different type of threat.” of the problem. ”
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Prosecutors said Smirnov also said Burisma executives paid Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter $5 million each so Hunter could “address all these issues through his father.” He is said to have lied about doing so.
His remarks were in reference to a criminal investigation into Burisma by then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. But in reality, Weiss said, Smirnov’s first contact with executives occurred in 2017, at the end of the Obama-Biden administration, and after Shokin had already been fired in February 2016.
The 37-page indictment states that “in other words,” Smirnov’s involvement with Burisma was because then-Vice President Joe Biden “no longer has the ability to influence U.S. policy and the attorney general is no longer in office.” “It was a time when I was not in a good position.”
Weiss said Smirnov was biased against President Joe Biden and that he “changed routine and non-routine business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and subsequently committed bribery to Joe Biden.” “I changed it to a charge,” he said.
Mr. Smirnov repeated similar false claims to FBI agents in September 2023, changed his story on other claims, and “made new false claims after saying he met with Russian officials.” He has been accused of “advertising.”
The charges against Mr. Smirnov damage House Republicans’ efforts to impeach President Joe Biden over unsubstantiated claims that he accepted bribes through his son’s work in Ukraine to guide U.S. policy. there is a possibility.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, downplayed Smirnov’s arrest, insisting that President Biden’s impeachment inquiry did not rely on information Smirnov provided to the FBI. .
“This is based on a large body of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, that shows Joe Biden knew about and participated in his family’s business transactions,” Comer said.
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