Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant who claimed that President Biden was bribed by Ukrainian oil and and gas company Burisma, was arrested on Thursday and charged with lying about Biden’s alleged role in the business dealings and creating false records, according to CNN.
The indictment alleges that Smirnov’s story to the FBI “was a fabrication, an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts that had actually occurred but at a later date than he claimed and for the purpose of pitching Burisma on the Defendant’s services and products, not for discussing bribes to [Joe Biden] when he was in office.”
“The Defendant 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,” the indictment states.
“In short, the Defendant 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” the indictment continues.
Smirnov submitted reports to the FBI about two meetings that Biden allegedly had with Burisma executives in 2015 and 2016. Smirnov alleged that Burisma executives paid $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden during Joe Biden’s tenure as Vice President to “take care of all those issues through his dad”.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy opened up the impeachment inquiry of Biden based on Smirnov’s claims, but now the FBI is using some of the same memos in their indictment against Smirnov, CNN reported.
“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,” said Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, in a statement to CNN.
“We were right and the air is out of their balloon. This is just another instance of Chairmen Comer and Jordan peddling falsehoods based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses,” he added.
House Oversight Chair James Comer denied the claims that the investigation revolves around Smirnov’s claims and that the impeachment in not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023, a form that the FBI uses to memorialize information gathered from confidential sources.
“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,” Comer said in a statement.
“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,” Comer added.
If convicted, Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, The New York Post reported.