Confidential Human Source behind Biden Bribery Allegations Charged with False Statement, Obstruction

A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted the FBI confidential human source (CHS) behind the allegations Joe and Hunter Biden took bribes from a Ukrainian businessman.

The unsealed indictment was announced Thursday by special counsel David Weiss, who signed the document along with three of his line prosecutors. Alexander Smirnov, the FBI source, was arrested on February 14 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record for statements in an FBI FD-1023 form that recorded the Biden bribery allegations.

“Despite repeated admonishments that he must provide truthful information to the FBI and that he must not fabricate evidence, the Defendant provided false derogatory information to the FBI about Public Official 1, an elected official in the Obama-Biden Administration who left office in January 2017, and Businessperson 1, the son of Public Official 1, in 2020, after Public Official 1 became a candidate for President of the United States of America,” the criminal indictment reads. The Obama administration official appears to be President Joe Biden, and his son, the businessman, appears to be Hunter Biden.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) released in July the FD-1023 created in June 2020 outlining the false information Smirnov provided about the alleged bribery scheme. The source initially gave the FBI information in March 2017 about Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings’ plans to go public, according to the indictment. Hunter Biden was a board member of Burisma at the time.

In June 2020, Smirnov delivered information to the FBI for the first time about supposed meetings that took place in 2015 or 2016 and falsely claimed Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky admitted he hired Hunter Biden to protect the firm and later bragged about allegedly bribing Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each.

The indictment accuses Smirnov of fabricating the events listed in the June 2020 FD-1023 because he had a bias against Biden’s presidential candidacy. Smirnov sent his FBI handler numerous text messages in 2020 disparaging Joe Biden and boasting of his bribery allegations, the indictment shows.

When FBI agents interviewed Smirnov in September 2023, he allegedly made similar false claims to those in June 2020 and changed parts of his story.

“When he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023, the Defendant 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,” the indictment states.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer emphasized the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family’s foreign business dealings is unrelated to the discredited bribery allegations. He also criticized the FBI for failing to determine the veracity of the bribery allegations by a source thought to be credible.

“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. The FBI’s actions in this matter are very concerning. The FBI had this form for years and it appears they did nothing to verify the troubling claims contained within the record until Congress became aware of and demanded access to them,” Comer said in a statement provided to NR.

“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. Just this week, we had another witness confirm Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Bidens around the world,” Comer added.

Comer appears to be referring to former Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski, who testified Tuesday about the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. In his opening statement, Bobulinski claimed the Bidens were running a foreign influence peddling scheme with Joe Biden at the center of it.

Smirnov is being prosecuted in the Central District of California, where Hunter Biden is facing nine federal tax charges tied to his alleged failure to pay over $1 million of taxes over a roughly four-year period. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty on January 11 to the tax charges stemming from Weiss’ criminal investigation.

Smirnov faces a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted.