In a major setback for the impeachment inquiry of the president being carried out by the House Republicans, Justice Department special counsel has indicted a former FBI informant for allegedly lying about the overseas business dealings of President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Special Counsel David Weiss has charged 43-year-old Alexander Smirnov of giving false statements and making a fictitious record in what is called the “FBI 1023 report”, which is based on the false information provided to the investigators by him.
On Wednesday (Feb 14), Smirnov was arrested at a Nevada airport, stated the Justice Department.
As per a grand jury indictment, which was unsealed in the Central District of California, Smirnov allegedly spoke with his FBI handler in 2017 regarding Burisma Holdings Limited, which is a Ukrainian holding company where Hunter Biden was appointed on the board.
Three years later in June 2020, Smirnov allegedly informed the FBI regarding the two meetings held in 2015 or 2016 in which he claimed that he was informed about the company paying Hunter Biden to serve on Burisma’s board so as to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
Smirnov later also informed the investigators that “they had specifically paid $5 million each to Public Official 1, when he was in office, and Businessperson 1 so that [Businessperson 1] will take care of all those issues through his dad,” as per the charging documents.
The indictment fails to specifically identify President Biden as well as his son, however, the descriptions in court papers appear identical to their identities.
“The Defendant made these statements to the Handler in June 2020, when Public Official 1 was a candidate for President of the United States and the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties,” alleged the indictment.
Statements memorialised in FBI record form ‘false’
According to the prosecutors, the two statements memorialised in an FBI record form, “were false, as the Defendant knew.”
“No such statements were made to the Defendant because, in truth and fact, Defendant met with officials from Burisma for the first time in 2017, after Public Official 1 left office in January 2017, and after the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016,” said the special counsel.
Till September 2023, Smirnov gave false statements to federal investigators and the indictment said that he, “repeated some of his false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.”
Watch: Russian President Putin says he prefers Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the White House
He has been accused by the special counsel of “expressing a bias” against Biden in May 2020 text messages with his FBI handler, and saying that the then-presidential candidate was “going to jail.” However, Smirnov has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Responding to the charges made on Thursday, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said, “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. We were right and the air is out of their balloon.”
(With inputs from agencies)
