Ex-FBI Informant Smirnov, Indicted over Biden Bribery Allegations, to Sit in Jail While Awaiting Trial

A federal judge ordered jail time Monday for the ex-FBI informant indicted for allegedly making false statements accusing Joe and Hunter Biden of taking bribes.

U.S. District Judge Otis Wright ruled that Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI confidential human source, is to be held in jail while awaiting trial on charges stemming from allegations he made to the FBI that Joe and Hunter Biden took $10 million worth of bribes from Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings.

“I have not changed my mind,” Wright said, according to CNN. “The defendant will be remanded pending trial.”

Special counsel David Weiss and his team of prosecutors appealed to Wright last week after a magistrate judge in Nevada permitted Smirnov to remain free on personal recognizance until his trial. Federal authorities first detained Smirnov in Las Vegas upon his indictment by a federal grand jury in California. Smirnov was arrested a second time during a meeting with his attorneys and brought back to California after an order from Wright on Friday.

“It has come to this Court’s attention that counsel for defendant has sought an emergency hearing in the District of Nevada to arrange the release of Defendant Smirnov, likely to facilitate his absconding from the United States,” Wright stated.

Smirnov is facing one charge of making false statements and one obstruction charge because his bribery allegations were memorialized on an official FBI document. He brought the bribery allegations to the FBI in spring 2020, and they were recorded on an FD-1023 form, a type of document for agents to record unverified allegations from a confidential informant. Leo Wise, Weiss’ top deputy, said Smirnov “made it all up” in reference to the bribery claims. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The FBI used Smirnov as an informant numerous times dating back to 2010, according to Smirnov’s indictment. He was permitted to carry out illegal activity for investigative purposes on multiple occasions and previously turned over information surrounding Burisma to the FBI in 2017.

Federal prosecutors initially argued that Smirnov should be detained because of his apparent ties to Russian intelligence officials, his $6 million of available funds, and his dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship. The former informant allegedly lied to pretrial services about the amount of money sitting in his bank account, prosecutors said.

Weiss and his staff are prosecuting Smirnov as part of their criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and illegal possession of a firearm. In a recent court filing, Biden’s attorneys used Smirnov’s indictment to question the credibility of Weiss’s probe. Hunter Biden is staring down three federal gun charges in Delaware and nine federal tax charges in California. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the gun and tax charges and seeks to have them dismissed.

Hunter Biden was a member of Burisma’s board from 2014 to 2019 and made millions from his position with the firm, according to bank records and his federal tax indictment. He is set to testify on Wednesday about his foreign business dealings for the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden.