A former FBI informant, who had allegedly made false claims that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepted bribes, has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, as revealed in court documents filed on Thursday.
Alexander Smirnov, as part of a plea deal with Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, will admit to fabricating the story central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. This plea agreement follows new tax evasion charges filed against Smirnov by prosecutors a few weeks prior. The agreement outlines that both parties will recommend a prison sentence ranging from two to six years.
Smirnov’s attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, stated that they will argue for a fair sentence in court but declined to comment further.
Smirnov was arrested in February after allegedly falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that Burisma executives had paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016. According to court documents, Smirnov claimed that an executive had said Hunter Biden was hired to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
Prosecutors noted that while Smirnov did have contact with Burisma executives, it was routine and occurred in 2017, after President Barack Obama and Biden had left office, meaning Biden would not have been able to influence US policy. They stated that Smirnov made the bribery allegations after expressing bias against Biden, who was then a presidential candidate.
In September 2023, Smirnov repeated some of these false claims during an FBI interview, altered his story on others, and “promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,” according to prosecutors.
Court documents indicate that Smirnov has agreed to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion and creating a false FBI record. Smirnov is being prosecuted by the same special counsel who brought federal gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden.
Frances Ibiefo
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