Prosecutors announced Thursday that an FBI informant was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with lying about the relationship between President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in dealing with Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
Alexander Smirnov has been charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record, according to court documents unsealed Thursday and reported on by Fox News. Smirnov was responsible for the tip that started an investigation into whether the Bidens received bribes while Joe Biden was vice president.
The indictment claims that Smirnov told the FBI that Hunter had been hired by Burisma to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” Smirnov also told the investigators that Burisma paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each. Smirnov also told the FBI that Burisma had sought Biden’s help getting then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin fired.
The FBI learned that the Bidens did have dealings with Burisma, but only in 2017, and the relationship was “routine and unextraordinary.” The indictment claims that Smirnov fabricated the story in an attempt to sabotage Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
The story is considered key to the ongoing impeachment inquiry being conducted by Republicans, which is being led by the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), as reported by The Dallas Express.
“To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023. It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings,” Comer said in a statement after news of the indictment broke, according to The New Republic.
“When asked by the committee about their confidence in the confidential human source, the FBI told the committee the confidential human source was credible and trusted, had worked with the FBI for over a decade, and had been paid six figures,” he said.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said the indictment confirms what his legal team has known all along.
“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,” Lowell said in a statement. “We were right, and the air is out of their balloon.”
It is unclear whether the impeachment inquiry will continue without Smirnov, who was viewed as the star witness in the probe to expose any crimes Biden may have committed during his vice presidency.
