A former FBI informant charged with making up a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company had contacts with Russian intelligence-affiliated officials, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Prosecutors revealed the alleged contact as they urged a judge in Las Vegas to keep Alexander Smirnov behind bars while he awaits trial. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts allowed Smirnov to be released from custody on electronic GPS monitoring.
Smirnov, 43, is accused of falsely telling his FBI handler that executives with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million US each around 2015.
According to prosecutors, Smirnov admitted in an interview after his arrest last week that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.
They said Smirnov’s contacts with Russian officials were recent and extensive, and that Smirnov had planned to meet with one official during an upcoming overseas trip.
“What this shows is that the misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020,” prosecutors for David Weiss said in a court filing. “He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans used their majority to approve a formal impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, despite the fact they’ve failed to present any evidence linking him to a crime.
Weiss, nominated to the be a U.S. attorney in Delaware in 2018 by President Donald Trump, was named last August by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel for the Hunter Biden probe.
Democrats call for end of probe
Smirnov’s claims have played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into the president.
Democrats called for an end to the probe after the Smirnov indictment was revealed last week, while Republicans distanced the inquiry from his claims and said they would continue to “follow the facts.” Hunter Biden is expected to give a closed-door deposition next week to a House committee, while the president’s brother James Biden is doing so on Wednesday.
The White House didn’t immediately comment Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Smirnov, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with Burisma paid millions of dollars to Hunter and Joe Biden in 2015 or 2016.
But Smirnov had only routine business dealings with the company starting in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors.
In a Tuesday court filing, Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, called Smirnov’s claims “ridiculous,” adding: “It now seems clear that the Smirnov allegations infected this case.”
Prosecutors had followed Smirnov “down his rabbit hole of lies,” the filing said. It argued that Hunter Biden’s plea deal fell apart because prosecutors at the time were looking into bribery claims from the indicted ex-FBI informant that they now consider to be a liar.
President’s son wants tax case dropped
In another court filing, Hunter Biden asked for the dismissal of his tax case in California.
He was indicted in September on charges of lying about his drug use when he bought a firearm in 2018, becoming the first child of a sitting president to be charged with a felony. He was again indicted in December in California for failing to pay $1.4 million US in taxes.
Hunter Biden says there’s no evidence his father, U.S. President Joe Biden, was ‘financially involved’ in his business, and calls the Republican impeachment inquiry ‘beyond the absurd.’
As for Smirnov, he is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where he lived for 16 years before relocating to Las Vegas two years ago.
Smirnov hid his face and did not speak to reporters Tuesday night when he walked out of the courthouse with his lawyers and girlfriend at his side. He wore a GPS monitor on his left ankle and had changed into street clothes and out of the yellow jail garb he had worn in court.
Defence attorney David Chesnoff said he looks forward to defending Smirnov at trial.
Source Agencies
