Alexander Smirnov, a former confidential FBI employee, has agreed to a plea deal in which he will plead guilty to making up allegations about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to court documents released Thursday.
Smirnov claimed in 2020 that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each to drop criminal investigations into the organization.
“The events that the defendant first reported to the clerk in June 2020 were forgeries,” the report states Plea documents Condition.
“The events that the defendant first reported to the clerk in June 2020 were forgeries. “The defendant turned his routine and unusual business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Officer 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for president, after he expressed his bias against Officer 1 and his candidacy.”
The plea agreement states that Smirnov repeated his allegedly false allegations about the Bidens in 2023 and told investigators a “new false narrative” about Hunter Biden by then. At this time, Weiss’ office continued to investigate Hunter Biden and brought charges against him for gun and tax crimes.
Special Counsel David Weiss, who led the prosecution of Hunter on tax and firearms charges, also prosecuted the case against Smirnov. The former informant will plead guilty to one count of making false federal records and three counts of tax evasion. Smirnov is accused of failing to report income of more than $2 million in two decades.
In July, Smirnov’s legal team tried to have the charges dropped.
Smirnov and his legal team are now taking advantage of Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling that dismissed the case against Trump on procedural grounds. Judge Cannon found that Special Counsel Jack Smith was improperly or unlawfully appointed and therefore all subsequent proceedings and indictments were unconstitutional. Weiss is leading an investigation into Hunter Biden and other related matters, which include a possible connection to his father, President Joe Biden.
“The bottom line is this,” she wrote. “The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional limitation arising from the separation of powers, and it gives Congress a judicious role in determining the appropriateness of conferring appointing authority on subordinate officials. The position of special counsel effectively usurps this important legislative authority and transfers it to a department head, thereby threatening the structural freedom inherent in the separation of powers if the political branches want to give the attorney general the power to appoint special counsel Smith to investigate and prosecute If you do this Proceeding with the full powers of a United States attorney, there is a valid means of doing so. He may be appointed and confirmed by the standard method prescribed by the Appointments Clause, as Congress has directed for United States attorneys throughout American history, see 28 USC § 541, or Congress may make his appointment by enacting positive laws in accordance with of the appointment clause.”
Smirnov’s allegations were the focus of an investigation by Republican lawmakers against the Bidens. Weiss’ team alleged that the former whistleblower turned his usual communications with business contacts at Burisma into bribery allegations against the Bidens.
The former informant spent a lot of money on luxury purchases. “Smirnov admits he spent more than $1 million of the money on buying a Las Vegas condo, a Bentley lease and other luxury items for himself and his partner,” CNN reported, instead of paying his taxes .
When the DOJ first charged Smirnow, it raised questions among Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). They questioned “how the Justice Department and the FBI could use this confidential human source for approximately 14 years, pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars, use that information for investigations and prosecutions, and then ultimately determine that he is a liar.”
