FBI informant lied to investigators about Bidens' business dealings, special counsel alleges
Washington — The special counsel who is investigating the president's son, Hunter Biden, charged a one-time FBI informant with lying to investigators about the business dealings of the first son and President Joe Biden.
Special counsel David Weiss charged Alexander Smirnov, 43, with making a false statement and creating a fictitious record in what's known as an FBI 1023 report based on the false information he provided to investigators.
Smirnov was arrested at a Nevada airport on Wednesday, the Justice Department said.
According to a grand jury indictment unsealed in the Central District of California, Smirnov allegedly began speaking with his FBI handler in 2017 to discuss Burisma Holdings, Limited, a Ukrainian holding company that hired Hunter Biden to sit on its board.
It was not until June 2020, three years later, that Smirnov allegedly told the FBI about two meetings in 2015 or 2016 in which he said he was told that the company was paying Hunter Biden on serve on Burisma's board to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems." Later, Smirnov allegedly told investigators that "that they had specifically paid $5 million each to Public Official 1, when he was in office, and Businessperson 1 so that '[Businessperson 1] will take care of all those issues through his dad," according to charging documents.
The indictment does not specifically identify President Biden nor his son by name, but the descriptions in court papers match their identities.
"The Defendant made these statements to the Handler in June 2020, when Public Official 1 was a candidate for President of the United States and the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties," the indictment alleged.
Prosecutors alleged both statements, which were memorialized in an FBI record form, "were false, as the Defendant knew."
"No such statements were made to the Defendant because, in truth and fact, Defendant met with officials from Burisma for the first time in 2017, after Public Official 1 left office in January 2017, and after the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016," the special counsel said.
Smirnov continued to make his alleged false statements to federal investigators up until September 2023, when the indictment said he, "repeated some of his false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials."
The special counsel accused Smirnov of "expressing a bias" against Mr. Biden in May 2020 text messages with his FBI handler, expressing a view that the then presidential candidate was "going to jail."
The FBI 1023 that the special counsel alleges was based on Smirnov's false information correlates with an investigative document that drew intense scrutiny from congressional Republicans over the last year because they alleged it pointed to alleged misdeeds by Mr. Biden and his son.
Weiss' indictment appears to rebut that claim, alleging Smirnov "transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy."
An attorney for the defendant could not be immediately identified.
The president's son has been charged with nine federal tax charges for what the special counsel alleges was a "four-year scheme" to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in federal taxes.
Weiss, who was appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware by former President Donald Trump and named special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2023, charged Hunter Biden with three felony gun charges in the state of Delaware that are related to his alleged unlawful possession of a firearm.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Responding to Thursday's charges, Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement, ""For months we have warned that Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts. We were right and the air is out of their balloon."
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Robert Legare is a CBS News multiplatform reporter and producer covering the Justice Department, federal courts and investigations. He was previously an associate producer for the "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell."