A former FBI informant, prosecuted for lying and fabricating false corruption charges against Joe Biden and his son, admitted to investigators that he received information from people linked to Russian intelligence, US prosecutors reported Tuesday, calling them “lies”.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, a former American-Israeli federal police informant arrested Thursday in Las Vegas, is suspected of having lied by accusing the American president and his son Hunter Biden of having each received five million dollars in bribes -win to allow a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, to escape prosecution.
But according to prosecutor David Weiss and other magistrates, “the misinformation that (Mr. Smirnov) is spreading is not limited to 2020. He is actively peddling new lies that could have an impact on the American elections (of 2024), after a meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.
“During his custodial interrogation on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in spreading a story” about Hunter Biden, prosecutors add in a court document filed with a Nevada court.
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 into the public sphere and become a central piece of fueling these suspicions. But this is a completely fabricated story, the magistrates repeated on Tuesday, according to whom the consequences of these false accusations “continue to be felt today”.
The indictment of Mr. Smirnov for transmitting false information to the FBI about Joe and Hunter Biden weakens the impeachment investigation led by Republicans in Congress against the American president, a few months before a probable new face-to-face between the Democrat and Donald Trump for the White House.
A businessman now converted to painting, Hunter Biden is a favorite target of Republicans in the United States, who fueled suspicions about his business affairs in Ukraine and China during the Obama era.
But the ongoing judicial investigation into the president’s son has so far failed to substantiate these accusations.
