A former FBI informant pleaded guilty Monday to providing false information to federal authorities about Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden months before the 2020 presidential election.
Alexander Smirnov was indicted this year in connection with funneling false information to his FBI handler about the Bidens in June 2020, falsely claiming that officials from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden, had paid the father and son $5 million each during the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president.
Many House Republicans had touted a confidential human source document tied to Smirnov’s allegations as key to their impeachment inquiry into Biden, who denied any wrongdoing.
Smirnov entered his plea in a California federal court after having reached an agreement filed last week that he would plead guilty to causing the creation of a false and fictitious record in a federal investigation. He also pleaded guilty to tax evasion in charges tied to a separate indictment unsealed last month, admitting he received more than $2 million in unreported income for the tax years 2020-22.
Prosecutors and Smirnov’s attorneys agreed to recommend the court impose four to six years in prison and one year of supervised release at his sentencing next month. They agreed to around $675,000 in restitution, the plea agreement says.
The agreement also credits Smirnov for time served during his pretrial detention after he was arrested in February.
According to the indictment, Smirnov sent his handler “a series of messages expressing bias” against Biden, who was then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in May 2020, before he made the bribery allegations a month later.
Prosecutors argued in a bid for his detention before trial that Smirnov was “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”
An attorney for Smirnov did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening.
Smirnov began working as a confidential human source for the FBI in 2010. The case against him was brought by special counsel David Weiss, who previously investigated Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges.
Hunter Biden was convicted on federal gun charges in June and pleaded guilty to tax charges in September. His father pardoned him this month ahead of his scheduled sentencing in the gun case on Dec. 12 and the tax case on Dec. 16.
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