A former FBI informant accused of fabricating corruption allegations about President Joe Biden and his son has agreed to plead guilty to four felony charges to resolve two pending federal criminal cases against him, a lawsuit shows. .
Alexander Smirnov, 44, admitted to lying when he told the FBI that he had participated in meetings in 2015 or 2016 with executives from Ukrainian energy company Burisma about a plan to pay $10 million to Joe and Hunter Biden. Joe Biden was the vice president at the time of the fabricated meetings, and Smirnov claimed the alleged payments were bribes to “protect us… from all kinds of trouble,” according to a plea deal filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles.
Smirnov also admitted that he falsely claimed to have had a conversation with an official at Burisma, where Hunter Biden sat on the board. Smirnov falsely claimed that the Burisma official said it would take 10 years for investigators to find records of the alleged payments to Joe Biden, according to the settlement.
Smirnov agreed to plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of tax evasion. He reached a deal with special counsel David Weiss, who began investigating allegations against Hunter Biden during President Donald Trump’s first term and was allowed to continue the investigation after Joe Biden took office.
Under the plea agreement, Smirnov faces a prison sentence of four to six years.
Smirnov, who was arrested in February and has been in custody since, faced a jury trial next month in Los Angeles on charges of obstruction and providing false information to the FBI. He had asked for the trial to be postponed until April, but U.S. District Judge Otis Wright had not yet ruled on that request.
Wright, an appointee of President George W. Bush, did not immediately set a date for Smirnov’s guilty plea or sentencing.
Trump has leveled allegations of corruption against the Bidens that are similar to those Smirnov has now admitted to fabricating. After Trump’s inauguration in January, he would have the power to end Smirnov’s prosecution, pardon him outright or commute any sentence Wright might impose.
Smirnov’s plea deal suggests that the term of Weiss, who was granted special counsel status by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August 2023, is nearing its end.
Weiss has filed two criminal cases against Hunter Biden: one for various tax crimes and the other related to his purchase of a gun while addicted to drugs. The younger Biden pleaded guilty to tax crimes and was convicted by a jury of gun-related crimes, but earlier this month Joe Biden issued an unusually broad pardon for his son, breaking his repeated promise not to punish his son. clemency.
