FBI informant charged by special counsel David Weiss for allegedly making up Biden-Burisma bribery claim
Special counsel David Weiss on Thursday charged the FBI informant who alleged President Biden and first son Hunter Biden were involved in a $10 million bribery scheme with providing false information to the bureau.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, was indicted by a California grand jury on two felony counts of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record for statements he made to the FBI referenced in a June 2020 FD-1023 form that House Republicans have used as evidence in Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry.
The indictment alleges that Smirnov lied to his FBI handler about meetings he had with a Burisma official while Joe Biden was vice president, during which Smirnov claims the official told him the energy company hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems” and to “deal with” then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who had investigating Bursima.
Shokin was fired from his post in 2016 after Joe Biden pressured Ukrainian leaders, arguing that the prosecutor was corrupt.
Smirnov alleges the Burisma official, who is unnamed in the indictment but is believed to be the company’s founder Mykola Zlochevsky, later told him he paid Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Biden $5 million each.
The Bidens are referred to as “Public Official 1” and “Businessperson 1” throughout the 37-page indictment.
Smirnov also reported two purported phone calls between himself and the Burisma official in which the official bragged that he was “forced to pay [Joe and Hunter] and that it would take investigators 10 years to find records of illicit payments,” according to the indictment.
“The events the Defendant first reported to the Handler in June 2020 were fabrications,” Weiss states in the indictment.
“In truth and fact, [Smirnov] had contact with executives from Burisma in 2017, after the end of the Obama-Biden Administration and after the then Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016, in other words, when [Joe Biden] had no ability to influence U.S. policy and when the Prosecutor General was no longer in office,” Weiss argues.
“In short, the [Smirnov] transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against [Joe Biden], the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against [Joe Biden] and his candidacy,” he continues.
The special counsel notes that in May 2020, Smirnov sent his handler a series of messages expressing bias against Joe Biden, who was the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee at the time, as reports of Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukraine made headlines in the US.
“Smells bad for [Joe Biden],” one of Smirnov’s messages, included in the indictment, reads.
Smirnov “changed his story,” “repeated some of his false claims” and “promoted a new false narrative” based on alleged meetings with “Russian officials” when he was interviewed by the FBI in September 2023, according to Weiss.
Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who is leading one the three congressional panels overseeing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, downplayed the damage that Smirnov’s indictment has done on the impeachment effort and chastised the FBI for only recently investigating the informant’s claims.
“When asked by the committee about their confidence in the confidential human source, the FBI told the committee the confidential human source was credible and trusted, had worked with the FBI for over a decade, and had been paid six figures,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement.
“The FBI’s actions in this matter are very concerning. The FBI had this form for years and it appears they did nothing to verify the troubling claims contained within the record until Congress became aware of and demanded access to them.
“To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023. 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,” he added.
Comer first subpoenaed the FBI for the 2020 FD-1023 related to Smirnov’s allegations last summer after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), passed a whistleblower’s tip about the document.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, called on Comer, House Speaker Mike Johnson and congressional Republicans to end the impeachment inquiry into the president in light of Smirnov’s indictment.
Smirnov, who was arrested at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, after arriving from overseas, has a detention hearing scheduled for Feb. 20.
Last year, Weiss charged Hunter Biden with three felony counts related to false statements he made when purchasing a firearm and, separately, nine counts — including three felonies — for tax violations.
