The former FBI informant accused of lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court documents filed Thursday. As part of a plea deal with Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, Alexander Smirnov will admit to fabricating a story that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.
The plea deal comes weeks after prosecutors filed new tax evasion charges against Smirnov. Both sides will recommend a sentence of at least two years in prison and no more than six years, according to the agreement.
Smirnov’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday. Smirnov was arrested in February on charges that he falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016.
Smirnov told his boss that the officer said he hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his father, from all kinds of trouble,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Smirnov was communicating with Burisma executives, but it was routine and happened in 2017, after President Barack Obama and Biden, his vice president, left office – when Biden would not have the power to influence American policy. Prosecutors say he made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Biden while he was president.
He repeated some of the false allegations when interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023 and changed his story individually and “promoted a new false story after 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 was prosecuted by the same special counsel who prosecuted Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges.
Hunter was supposed to be sentenced this month for his crimes in those cases until he received his father’s pardon.
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