An FBI informant who was one of the main sources in the impeachment inquiry on President Joe Biden has been charged with lying.
The informant, Alexander Smirnov, 43, is accused of falsely telling the FBI that Hunter Biden demanded money to protect the Ukrainian company Burisma where he was a board member, the Associated Press reported.
The company was under investigation at the time.
Posecutors said in an indictment that Smirnov told the FBI that executives with Burisma paid both Bidens $5 million each in 2015 or 2016.
According to court documents, an executive told Smirnov Hunter Biden was hired to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
However, Smirnov’s relationship with the company was routine business in 2017, prosecutors said.
Smirnov’s motivation for lying appears to political, according to prosecutors.
“During the 2020 campaign, he sent his FBI handler ‘a series of messages expressing bias’ against Joseph R. Biden Jr., including texts, replete with typos and misspellings, boasting that he had information that would put him in jail,” The New York Times reported.
Smirnov’s story backed up the Republicans’ belief of a “Biden crime family,” according to a 37-page indictment unsealed late Thursday in federal court and brought by the special counsel, David C. Weiss.
In pushing for the impeachment inquiry, Republicans pressured the FBI to release internal reports after they learned of what Smirnov said.
Rep. James R. Comer (R-Ky.), the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, took drastic measures and threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in contempt if he did not release what Smirnov said.
The information was released and was said to be “very significant allegations from a trusted FBI informant implicating then-Vice President Joe Biden in a criminal bribery scheme.”
Comer made a statement after the charges against Smirnov became public. He said he was not responsible for what prosecutors alleged was a campaign intended to hurt Biden politically, The Times wrote.
Comer, in turn placed blame on FBI officials, who said their “source was credible and trusted, had worked with the FBI for over a decade and had been paid six figures,” The Times reported.
Smirnov now faces two charges of making false statements and obstructing an investigation into Hunter Biden.
He faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted.
Smirnov was arrested in Las Vegas on Wednesday and detained pending a hearing on Tuesday. He appeared in court in Las Vegas briefly Thursday and did not enter a plea.
Hunter Biden still faces a gun charge in Delaware and tax charges in California.
“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,” Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, said in a statement. “We were right, and the air is out of their balloon.”