A former FBI informant accused of falsely claiming that President Biden and his son Hunter accepted bribes has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court documents filed Thursday.
As part of his plea deal with Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, California resident Alexander Smirnov will admit that he fabricated the story that became central to the Republican congressional impeachment inquiry.
The plea deal comes just weeks after prosecutors filed new tax evasion charges against Smirnov. The two sides will recommend a sentence of at least two years behind bars and no more than six years, according to the agreement.
Smirnov's lawyers did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.
Smirnov was arrested in February on allegations that he falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016. Smirnov told his handler that an executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his father, from all kinds of problems,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Smirnov had contact with Burisma executives, but it was routine and actually took place in 2017, after President Obama and Biden, his vice president, left office, when Biden would not have been able to influence the American politics. Prosecutors said he made the bribery allegations after “expressing bias” against Biden while he was a presidential candidate.
He repeated some of the false claims when interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023, changed his story about others and “promoted a new false narrative after saying he met with Russian officials,” prosecutors said.
Smirnov agreed to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion and creating a false FBI record, according to court documents.
Smirnov, 43, a valuable FBI informant for the past 13 years, lived much of this time in a quiet, seemingly ordinary life in the Los Angeles suburbs with a long-time girlfriend 15 years his senior, calling Calabasas, Woodland Hills and Orange. County Home.
Smirnov's tenure as a confidential FBI source ended dramatically in February, when a grand jury in Los Angeles indicted him on charges of obstructing justice and lying to federal agents.
Smirnov is being prosecuted by the same special prosecutor who brought federal gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden. Hunter was supposed to be sentenced this month for his convictions in those cases until his father forgives him.
Richer writes for the Associated Press. Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this. report.
