A former FBI informant, prosecuted for lying and fabricating false corruption charges against Joe Biden and his son Hunter, was arrested Thursday in Las Vegas, his lawyers said, amid fears that he would escape to American justice.
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Alexander Smirnov, 43, a former American-Israeli federal police informant arrested for the first time last week in the city of Nevada, is suspected of having lied by falsely accusing the American president and his son Hunter Biden of having each received five million dollars in bribes to allow a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, to escape prosecution.
At the start of the week, he was released, against the advice of the public prosecutor’s office, on condition that he surrender his passport and that he could be located. But he was arrested again Thursday morning at his lawyers’ offices, his lawyers said in court documents.
His lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfe, emphasize that his presence in their offices “contradicts the idea that he risks fleeing” and urgently request a hearing in order to release him.
Alexander Smirnov “provided false, derogatory information to the FBI about” Joe and Hunter Biden, according to the indictment. An element which weakens the impeachment investigation led by Republicans in Congress against Joe Biden, a few months before a probable new face-to-face between the Democrat and Donald Trump during the November presidential election.
The right accuses Joe Biden, so far without conclusive proof, of having used his influence when he was Barack Obama’s vice-president (2009-2017) to allow his son Hunter to conduct questionable deals in Ukraine and in China.
Mr. Smirnov’s story had leaked and fueled these accusations. But this is a completely fabricated story, says the indictment.
The defendant, who faces 25 years in prison, also admitted to investigators that he had received information from people linked to Russian intelligence.
