Former FBI informant behind false Biden-Ukraine corruption charges sentenced to 6 years in prison
The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of accepting a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison.
The former informant, Alexander Smirnov, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, has been in prison since his arrest last February.
The sentencing in Los Angeles ends one of the final legs of special counsel David Weiss' investigation into Hunter Biden and related cases. The only item on the agenda that appears to be pending is Weiss's final report, which, under federal regulations, will be submitted to the attorney general, who can then make it public.
Smirnov's explosive indictment — and subsequent public repudiation of his false corruption allegations — helped derail the Republican impeachment campaign against Biden. Prosecutors indicted Smirnov on additional tax charges in November, and with a pending trial, he pleaded guilty last month to causing the creation of a false FBI file, as well as three counts of tax evasion.
As part of the agreement, prosecutors agreed to ask the judge for a maximum sentence of six years in prison, and Smirnov's team agreed to ask for a minimum of four years. Smirnov also agreed to pay about $675,000 in restitution to the IRS to compensate for his tax evasion. Advertisement
In court documents, prosecutors argued for a six-year prison sentence, calling Smirnov a "liar and tax evader" who "betrayed the United States." Prosecutors said his baseless corruption allegations against Biden were "among the most serious types of election interference imaginable" because they disrupted the 2020 and 2024 election cycles.
Smirnov's lawyers had asked for a four-year prison sentence. In court documents, they said he had no criminal record, suffered from severe glaucoma in both eyes and that his "remorse was sincere." They submitted letters from relatives praising Smirnov as a "deeply patriotic and proud American" who "did everything for his friends and family" and "always stood up for justice."
Born in the Soviet Union, Smirnov and his family immigrated to Israel as a child and later moved to the United States. He became a naturalized citizen and a valuable informant for the FBI. But prosecutors say he later began expressing bias against Biden and fabricated the Ukraine corruption narrative to damage Biden's 2020 campaign against Trump. The Justice Department secretly investigated Smirnov's allegations in 2020, but nothing came of them. Three years later, as the 2024 campaign approached, Republicans in Congress brought Smirnov's unproven allegations to national attention and promoted his record as an FBI informant. His claims quickly went viral in the right-wing media ecosystem. Amid this GOP scrutiny, Weiss's team re-interviewed Smirnov in 2023 to verify his statements while also investigating Hunter Biden. But Weiss concluded that Smirnov "lied" and "should be prosecuted himself" for continuing to deceive the FBI, prosecutors said in court filings. Weiss sued Hunter Biden on tax fraud and weapons charges. He was convicted by a jury last year of three firearms-related felonies and later pleaded guilty to nine federal tax crimes. President Biden granted his son an unconditional pardon in December, before he was convicted in both cases.
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