FBI informant indicted for lying about Joe and Hunter Biden alleged business dealings

Joey Garrison, USA TODAY
Updated

WASHINGTON – A former FBI informant has been indicted by a Justice Department special counsel for allegedly lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings in a major setback for House Republicans' impeachment inquiry of the president.

Alexander Smirnov, 43, was charged with two counts of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record for information he fed the FBI.

Smirnov, who is described in the indictment as an FBI informant beginning in 2010, was arrested Wednesday at the 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 has previously brought tax and gun-related charges against Hunter Biden. House Republicans have cited Smirnov's story about Hunter Biden's business dealings in their impeachment inquiry of the president.

Smirnov is accused of falsely claiming to the FBI that executives of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma admitted to him in 2015 and 2016 that they hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems." Hunter Biden was a Burisma board member.

Smirnov made the claim to investigators in June 2020 when Joe Biden was a presidential candidate.

Prosecutors say Smirnov also lied about Burisma executives telling him they paid $5 million apiece to then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter so that Hunter "will take care of all those issues through his dad."

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, with his attorney Abbe Lowell, right, arrive for a press conference outside the United States Capitol where Biden spoke to reporters and offered to publicly testify in House Republican's request on Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, with his attorney Abbe Lowell, right, arrive for a press conference outside the United States Capitol where Biden spoke to reporters and offered to publicly testify in House Republican's request on Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington.

Smirnov's remarks were a reference to a criminal investigation into Burisma by then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. But in reality, according to Weiss, Smirnov only had contact with executives in 2017, at the end of the Obama-Biden administration and after Shokin had already been fired in February 2016.

"In other words," the 37-page indictment reads, Smirnov's involvement with Burisma came when then-Vice President Joe Biden "had no ability to influence U.S. policy and when the Prosecutor General was no longer in office."

Smirnov "transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma" into bribery allegations against Biden, according to prosecutors. Weiss accuses Smirnov of being motivated by political bias, pointing to text messages in which Smirnov boasted about having information that would put Biden in jail.

Smirnov is accused of repeating the same false claims to FBI agents in September 2023, changing his story about other claims and promoting "a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials."

The charges against Smirnov could deliver a damaging blow to House Republicans' efforts to impeach Joe Biden over unsubstantiated claims that he received bribe payments through his son's work in Ukraine in exchange for steering U.S. policy.

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, flanked by Kevin Morris, left, and Abbe Lowell, right, attend a House Oversight Committee meeting on Jan. 10 in Washington. The committee is meeting today as it considers citing him for Contempt of Congress.
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, flanked by Kevin Morris, left, and Abbe Lowell, right, attend a House Oversight Committee meeting on Jan. 10 in Washington. The committee is meeting today as it considers citing him for Contempt of Congress.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which has led the investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings, downplayed Smirnov's indictment, arguing the impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden relies on other evidence besides the information that Smirnov provided to the FBI.

"It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings," Comer said.

But Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the Oversight Committee, called on Republicans to end their "doomed impeachment inquiry" following the charges brought against Smirnov.

“In a detailed indictment, Special Counsel David Weiss − who was appointed by former President Donald Trump − has demonstrated how key evidence at the heart of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry is based on a lie," Raskin said.

Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden's attorney, called the indictment of Smirnov "just another example" of House Republicans "peddling falsehoods based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses.”

“For months we have warned that Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts," Lowell said. "We were right and the air is out of their balloon."

President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden with his son Beau watch the Independence Day fireworks display from the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2023.
President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden with his son Beau watch the Independence Day fireworks display from the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2023.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FBI informant indicted over lying about Hunter and Joe Biden

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