Ex-informant accused of lying about Bidens said he had Russian contacts

A former FBI informant accused of making false bribery claims about President Biden and his son Hunter — which were widely publicized by Republicans — claimed to have received information from Russian intelligence. This is evident from a court ruling on Tuesday.

In the memo, prosecutors portrayed the former informant, Alexander Smirnov, 43, as a serial liar who was unable to tell the truth about even the most basic details of his own life. But Mr. Smirnov told federal investigators that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in pushing a story” about Hunter Biden.

These revelations, including Mr. Smirnov's unverifiable claim that he had met with Russian intelligence officials as recently as three months ago, made him a flight risk and endangered national security, Justice Department officials said. Mr Smirnov has been held in Las Vegas since his arrest last week, where he has lived since 2022.

He was released Tuesday on a personal recognizance bond after a detention hearing, said his attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld.

Prosecutors have not specified what story Russian intelligence allegedly passed on to Mr. Smirnov, an Israeli citizen. But they suggested they couldn't believe anything he said. And they had many stories to choose from.

The memo describes Mr. Smirnov as a human hall of mirrors: He gave the FBI false information about the Bidens and misled prosecutors about his wealth, estimated at $6 million, while telling them he worked in the security sector, even though the government could find no evidence that that was true.

“The disinformation he is spreading is not limited” to his false claims about the Bidens, wrote prosecutors working for David C. Weiss, the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges.

“He is actively spreading new lies that could impact the US elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November,” she added.

That appeared to refer to Mr. Smirnov's claim, at the FBI in late 2023, that he had spoken to the head of a Russian intelligence unit who said he had intercepted phone calls from guests at a hotel abroad. This included “several calls from prominent US figures that the Russian government could use as a 'kompromat' in the 2024 elections,” prosecutors said.

Mr. Smirnov also told his FBI manager that he was involved in meetings to help resolve the war in Ukraine, and that he had knowledge of assassination squads operating in “a third country.”

Last week, Mr. Weiss accused Mr. Smirnov fabricating claims that President Biden and his son each solicited $5 million in bribes from Ukrainian energy giant Burisma, demanding the money to protect the company from an investigation by the country's attorney general.

These charges, which prosecutors now say were blatant fabrications inspired by Mr. Smirnov's hostility toward the president, were widely promoted by Republicans in Congress who cited them as justification for their now-stalled effort to oust Mr. Impeach Biden.

Mr. Smirnov was taken into custody last week as he left an international flight after what prosecutors described as “a months-long, multi-country trip abroad.” During that trip, he claimed to have had contacts with multiple foreign intelligence services and planned to embark on a similar trip several days later, the memo said.

What makes the Smirnov case so unusual, beyond its political significance, is the FBI's willingness to publicly burn a confidential informant who was on the bureau's payroll last year. The filing included excerpts from his source reporting documents, raw notes from interviews between handlers and informants that are considered some of the most sensitive federal law enforcement documents.

Also on Tuesday, Hunter Biden's legal team filed motions in federal court arguing that Mr. Smirnov's arrest — even if unrelated to the charges Mr. Biden faces — could alter the public's perception of has compromised their client, making fair trials impossible.

“It now seems clear that Smirnov's allegations have tainted this case,” said Abbe Lowell, Mr. Biden's lawyer, who accused Mr. Weiss of “Mr. Smirnov down his rabbit hole of lies.”