A former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who allegedly fabricated claims that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepted bribes, has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court documents filed on Thursday.
As part of a plea deal with Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, Smirnov will admit to making false statements and fabricating allegations central to the Republican-led impeachment inquiry in Congress. The deal also includes a guilty plea to tax evasion charges filed against him earlier this year. Both parties are expected to recommend a prison sentence of two to six years.
Smirnov’s attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, declined to comment on the details but indicated they would advocate for a fair sentence during proceedings.
Smirnov was arrested in February for allegedly falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that Burisma executives had paid $5 million each to Joe Biden and Hunter Biden in 2015 or 2016. Court documents reveal that Smirnov claimed a Burisma executive had stated Hunter Biden was hired to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
Prosecutors, however, noted that Smirnov’s interactions with Burisma executives were limited to routine meetings in 2017, after Joe Biden had left office. They assert that Smirnov fabricated the bribery claims and exhibited a clear bias against Biden, who was running for president at the time.
In September 2023, Smirnov reportedly repeated his false claims during an FBI interview, altered parts of his story, and introduced a “new false narrative” involving alleged meetings with Russian officials, according to prosecutors.
Smirnov’s guilty plea will address charges of tax evasion and creating a false FBI record. The case is being handled by special counsel David Weiss, the same prosecutor pursuing federal tax and gun charges against Hunter Biden.
The plea deal marks a significant development in a case that has fueled political controversies surrounding the Biden family. Sentencing is expected to follow in the coming months.
