Former FBI Source Alexander Smirnov Agrees to Plead Guilty
Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI source, has struck a plea agreement with the office of special counsel David Weiss, agreeing to plead guilty to several counts. According to the documents, Smirnov will plead guilty to causing the creation of a false and fictitious record in a federal investigation and to charges of tax evasion.
The charges against Smirnov include providing false information to the FBI. Specifically, he is accused of fabricating a story about Biden administration officials being bribed. The allegations apparently refer to President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, though they are not named in the indictment.
As a “confidential human source” with the FBI, Smirnov was in a position to gather and provide information to investigators. However, the investigation revealed that Smirnov had provided false information to the FBI about public officials and business associates.
In the statement of facts, it is alleged that Smirnov claimed executives at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, had told him that they had paid Hunter Biden $5 million each to “protect” them from problems and “deal with” the Ukrainian prosecutor general. However, an investigation found that this information was fabricated.
It is alleged that Smirnov had contact with executives at Burisma in 2017, after the Obama-Biden administration had ended, and transformed this into bribery allegations against a presidential candidate. The agreement states that Smirnov expressed bias against the presidential candidate and his candidacy before fabricating the story.
The trial for Smirnov has been delayed until after the 2024 election.
