FBI informant Alexander Smirnov appeared at a closed-door court session in Las Vegas after being charged with perjury and fabrication of records in connection with allegations he made against US President Joe Biden, Associated Press reported on Thursday.
Smirnov is accused of falsely claiming to his FBI handler that an executive of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma told him they had paid Biden and his son Hunter $5 million each to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” His initial claim was made in 2020 but he repeated them again in September 2023, further embellishing his narrative by falsely claiming to have also met with Russian officials.
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Prosecutors say that Smirnov, in fact, had only routine business dealings with the Ukrainian company beginning in 2017, which was after Biden, then Barack Obama’s vice president, had left office. It was also after the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin – whose investigation into Burisma Biden had supposedly worked to stop, according to Smirnov – was no longer in office.
Prosecutors said that witness testimony, email evidence, and phone and travel records further proved that Smirnov could not have been in touch with Burisma officials when he claimed, and that therefore, the bribery allegations against the Biden family were totally false.
Smirnov’s testimony formed the basis of an investigation launched by congressional Republicans into Biden and his family, and also prompted a House impeachment inquiry into the President.
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As a result of the case against Smirnov, Democrat Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is a senior member of the House Oversight Committee, called for an end to the Biden impeachment inquiry.
However, James Comer Chairman of the oversight committee, said that Smirnov’s testimony was only one strand of the Biden investigation which is “based on a large amount of evidence, including bank records and witness statements.”
Hunter Biden is expected to appear before the House Oversight Committee later this month in connection with his father’s impeachment proceedings and faces firearm and tax violation charges.
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