A former FBI informant who prosecutors say fabricated a false story about President Biden and His son, Hunter Biden A defendant accused of accepting a $10 million bribe from Ukrainian gas company Burisma was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison.
Alexander Smirnov, a dual US-Israeli citizen, has been behind bars since his arrest last February on charges of making false statements to the FBI.
The indictment came in connection with the investigation conducted by special counsel David Weiss into Hunter Biden. Weiss later Hunter was charged with taxes and firearms charges, but President Biden granted him a full pardon in December before his son was sentenced.
The Justice Department brought additional tax charges against Smirnov in November, alleging that he concealed millions of dollars in income he earned between 2020 and 2022, and Smirnov He pleaded guilty in December To evade his impending trial.
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In this courtroom diagram, defendant Alexander Smirnov speaks in federal court in Los Angeles, February 26, 2024. (William T. Robles via AP, File)
Smirnov was accused of falsely telling the FBI director that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid then-Vice President Biden and his son $5 million each around 2015. Smirnov's sensational claim came in 2020 after he expressed “prejudice” towards Joe Biden as President of the United States. Presidential candidate, according to prosecutors. The indictment says investigators found that Smirnoff had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Biden's term as vice president.
Prosecutors noted that Smirnoff's allegation “triggered a firestorm in Congress” when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The Biden administration rejected efforts to impeach Trump, calling them a “stunt.”
Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, left, exits his attorney's office in downtown Las Vegas after his release from federal custody on February 20, 2024. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, file)
Special Counsel Weiss tells lawmakers politics 'played no role' in Hunter Biden investigation
Before Smirnov was arrested. Republicans have demanded The FBI released the unredacted form documenting the unverified claims, though they acknowledged they could not confirm whether they were true.
“In committing his crimes, he betrayed the United States, a country that had shown him nothing but generosity, including granting him the greatest honor he could bestow: citizenship,” Weiss' team wrote in court papers. “He responded to the trust placed in him by the United States to be a law-abiding naturalized citizen, and more specifically, placed in him by a major law enforcement agency to tell the truth as a confidential human source, by attempting to interfere in a presidential election.”
President Joe Biden, wearing a Team USA jacket and walking with his son Hunter Biden, heads toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Prosecutors agreed to pursue Smirnoff for no more than six years as part of the plea deal. In court papers, the Justice Department called Smirnov a “liar and tax fraud” who “betrayed the United States,” adding that his false allegations of corruption against the Biden family were “among the most dangerous types of election interference one can imagine.” ”
In seeking a reduced sentence, Smirnoff's lawyers wrote that both Hunter Biden and President-elect Trump, who was charged by special counsel Jack Smith in two federal cases they have since dropped, “emerged devoid of any meaningful punishment.”
His lawyers had asked for a four-year prison sentence, arguing that their client had “learned a very serious lesson”, had no previous criminal record and was suffering from severe glaucoma in both eyes. Smirnoff's sentencing Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles concluded the final aspects of Weiss' investigation, and the special counsel is expected to report to Attorney General Merrick Garland in accordance with federal regulations. Garland can decide whether to release it to the public or not.
Smirnov will be given credit for the time he has spent behind bars since February.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
