A former FBI informant charged with fabricating accusations of corruption against President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, told law enforcement that he has been in contact with high-level Russian intelligence officials who were “involved in passing [along] a story” about Hunter Biden.
According to a Justice Department filing released Tuesday, Alexander Smirnov — who was arrested last Thursday in Las Vegas — told authorities who conducted his custody interview that he had “contacts with multiple foreign intelligence agencies and had plans to leave the United States two days after he was arrested last week for a months-long, multi-country foreign trip.”
“During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about [Hunter Biden],” the Justice Department wrote.
The filing notes that “law enforcement knows about Smirnov’s contact with officials affiliated with Russian intelligence because Smirnov himself reported on a number of those contacts to his FBI Handler. … Of particular note, Smirnov has reported numerous contacts with Russian Official 1, who has been described by Smirnov in a number of ways, including as the son of a former high-ranking Russian government official, someone who purportedly controls two groups of individuals tasked with carrying out assassination efforts in a third-party country, a Russian representative to another country, and as someone with ties to a particular Russian intelligence service.”
Smirnov also told authorities that he attended a meeting in December with “Russian Official 1”to discuss wire tapping operations at a prominent hotel frequented by U.S. officials. “Smirnov told [his] FBI Handler that the Russian Intelligence Service intercepted cell phone calls made by guests at the hotel. The Russian Intelligence Service intercepted several calls placed by prominent U.S. persons the Russian government may use as ‘kompromat,’” or compromising material, “in the 2024 election, depending on who the candidates will be.”
Smirnov was arrested on Thursday and charged with two counts of making false statements to federal authorities. The Justice Department alleges that in 2020 the informant “falsely claimed” that during two business meetings in 2015 and/or 2016 “executives associated with Burisma, admitted to him that they hired [Hunter Biden] to ‘protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,’” and provided him and President Biden with bribes to the tune of millions of dollars. On Thursday, attorneys for Hunter Biden alleged that Smirnov’s now-discredited allegations had been used to derail a planned plea deal between the president’s son and the Justice Department in August of last year.
Smirnov’s allegations are part of the basis of a relentless, years-long campaign by Republicans to undermine the Biden administration through accusations of corruption in the presidential family’s foreign business dealings. The claims have been considered thinly sourced and unproven for some time now, and yet House Republicans and right-wing media have repeatedly held them up as factual justification to launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
The Justice Department is requesting that Smirnov remain detained within the United States, citing his ties to foreign contacts who could “resettle Smirnov outside the United States if he were released,” and his access to “over $6 million in liquid funds” that would allow him to “live comfortably overseas for the rest of his life,” while potentially evading prosecution.
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