Informant charged with lying about Burisma payments to Bidens

An FBI informant has been charged with lying to authorities about claims of a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that allegedly involved President Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company — claims that are central to House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into the president.

Alexander Smirnov falsely reported in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said Thursday.

Smirnov had said a Burisma executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” prosecutors said.

Smirnov, 43, was indicted Wednesday on charges of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. No attorney was initially listed for him in court records.

Smirnov was expected to make a first court appearance in Las Vegas, where he was arrested after arriving from overseas, prosecutors said.

His claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden.

Prosecutors say Smirnov had contact with Burisma executives, but that it was routine and actually took place in 2017, after President Obama and Joe Biden, his vice president, had left office — so Biden would have had no power to influence U.S. policy.

Smirnov “transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy,” the indictment said.

He repeated some of the false claims when he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023 and changed his story to promote “a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,” prosecutors said.

If convicted, Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

The charges against him were filed by Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who has separately charged Hunter Biden with firearm and tax violations. Hunter Biden’s legal team did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the case against Smirnov.

The allegations became a hot issue in Congress as Republicans pursing investigations into President Biden and his family demanded the FBI release an unredacted form documenting the allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm whether the allegations were true.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) had subpoenaed the FBI last year for the document, known as FD-1023, as Republicans deepened their inquiry into Biden and his son Hunter ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Working alongside Comer, Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa released an unclassified document that Republicans said was significant in their investigation of Hunter Biden. It added to information that had been widely aired during President Trump’s first impeachment trial involving Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election. The Biden administration said at the time that the claims had been debunked years ago.

The impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son’s business dealings has lagged in the House, but the panel is pushing ahead with its work.

Hunter Biden is expected to appear before the committee later this month for an interview.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

An FBI informant has been charged with lying to authorities about claims of a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that allegedly involved President Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company — claims that are central to House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into the president.

Alexander Smirnov falsely reported in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said Thursday.

Smirnov had said a Burisma executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” prosecutors said.

Smirnov, 43, was indicted Wednesday on charges of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. No attorney was initially listed for him in court records.

Smirnov was expected to make a first court appearance in Las Vegas, where he was arrested after arriving from overseas, prosecutors said.

His claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden.

Prosecutors say Smirnov had contact with Burisma executives, but that it was routine and actually took place in 2017, after President Obama and Joe Biden, his vice president, had left office — so Biden would have had no power to influence U.S. policy.

Smirnov “transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy,” the indictment said.

He repeated some of the false claims when he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023 and changed his story to promote “a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,” prosecutors said.

If convicted, Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

The charges against him were filed by Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who has separately charged Hunter Biden with firearm and tax violations. Hunter Biden’s legal team did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the case against Smirnov.

The allegations became a hot issue in Congress as Republicans pursing investigations into President Biden and his family demanded the FBI release an unredacted form documenting the allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm whether the allegations were true.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) had subpoenaed the FBI last year for the document, known as FD-1023, as Republicans deepened their inquiry into Biden and his son Hunter ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Working alongside Comer, Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa released an unclassified document that Republicans said was significant in their investigation of Hunter Biden. It added to information that had been widely aired during President Trump’s first impeachment trial involving Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election. The Biden administration said at the time that the claims had been debunked years ago.

The impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son’s business dealings has lagged in the House, but the panel is pushing ahead with its work.

Hunter Biden is expected to appear before the committee later this month for an interview.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.