FBI informant charged with giving false information about Hunter Biden in 2020

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Fox News correspondent David Spunt has the latest on allegations about the Biden family's business dealings on 'Special Report.'

Special Counsel David Weiss has charged an FBI informant with giving false information after he alleged that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden were paid millions in exchange for their help firing the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. 

Alexander Smirnov, 43, is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record during FBI interviews. 

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs a House Oversight Committee meeting at Capitol Hill on January 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Prosecutors say Smirnov was arrested at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada Wednesday after a federal grand jury returned an indictment. 

Smirnov appeared in court in Las Vegas later Thursday where he did not enter a plea, per reporting from The Associated Press. The judge ordered the courtroom cleared after federal public defender Margaret Wightman Lambrose requested a closed hearing for arguments about sealing court documents. She declined to comment on the case.

According to the indictment, Smirnov gave "false derogatory information" to the FBI despite "repeated admonishments that he must provide truthful information and that he must not fabricate evidence." 

The indictment says Smirnov told an FBI agent in March 2017 that he had a phone call with Burisma’s owner concerning the firm potentially acquiring a U.S. company and making an initial public offering (IPO) on a U.S.-based stock exchange. 

In reporting this conversation to the FBI agent, Smirnov said Hunter Biden was a board member of Burisma, though this was publicly known. 

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In June 2020, Smirnov is accused of having told the FBI, for the first time, about two meetings he had four to five years prior, in which executives associated with Burisma supposedly admitted that they hired Hunter Biden to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems." 

During this meeting, the indictment alleges that Smirnov said the executives paid $5 million to each of the Bidens while Joe Biden was still in office. The indictment alleges that Smirnov falsely claimed the Bidens were paid so that Hunter Biden, with his dad’s help, could take care of a criminal investigation being conducted by the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin, into Burisma. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, claims a Burisma executive who allegedly paid then Vice President Biden $5 million has 17 audio recordings of calls with the Bidens. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The indictment alleges that this information given by Smirnov in June 2020 was a fabrication. Prosecutors say Smirnov did have contact with Burisma executives in 2017, but when Joe Biden was out of public office and had no ability to influence U.S. policy and after the Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016. 

The indictment alleges that Smirnov transformed his "routine and unextraordinary" business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later bribery allegations against Joe Biden after expressing bias against him and his presidential candidacy. 

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Smirnov is accused of repeating some of his false claims during an interview with FBI agents in September 2023, while changing other bits of information, and promoting a new false narrative after claiming to have met with Russian officials. 

If convicted, Smirnov faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.   

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley were approached by a whistleblower last summer who alleged that the FBI was in possession of a document — an FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020 — which explicitly detailed information provided by a confidential human source alleging Biden, while serving as vice president, was involved in a multi-million-dollar scheme with a foreign national in exchange for influence over policy decisions.

The source told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source was used by the FBI for "at least several years" before the FD-1023 form, and was "found to be highly credible" by the FBI. 

Comer said Thursday that FBI Director Christopher Wray refused a request from him and Grassley last summer for the public release of the form because the bureau "claimed it would jeopardize the safety of a confidential human source who they claimed was invaluable to the FBI." 

Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., arrives for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing titled "Unsuitable Litigation: Oversight of Third-Party Litigation Funding" in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Comer said the bureau informed him that the source was "credible and trusted, had worked with the FBI for over a decade, and have been paid six figures." 

"The FBI's actions in this matter are very concerning. The FBI had this form for years and it appears they did nothing to verify the troubling claims contained within the record until Congress became aware of and demanded access to them," Comer said. 

Comer said the FBI's FD-1023 form is not being used in an impeachment inquiry against the president. 

The impeachment inquiry, he said, "is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings." 

"Just this week, we had another witness confirm Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Bidens around the world. President Biden continues to lie to the American people about this matter and the American people demand the truth and accountability for any wrongdoing. We will continue to follow the facts to propose legislation to reform federal ethics laws and to determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Grassley told Fox News Digital that the indictment "confirms several points Senator Grassley has made repeatedly." 

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 6: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on judicial nominations on Capitol Hill September 6, 2023 in Washington, DC.  (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

"The informant behind the FD-1023 was, indeed, a long-serving, trusted FBI source used by the agency for criminal investigations since the Obama administration. In fact, he was so trusted that the FBI provided him authorization ‘to engage in illegal activity for investigative purposes,'" the spokesperson said. "But, when presented with information from a source the agency so trusted, the FBI – as exposed by Senator Grassley – sat on the document for years, without performing due diligence." 

The spokesperson added: "It’s clear that only after Senator Grassley made the FD-1023 public did the FBI investigate the allegations in the document." 

Grassley has sought to "ensure the DOJ and FBI investigated the FD-1023." 

"Today’s indictment makes clear that, without Senator Grassley’s oversight and exposure of the FD-1023, the agency would have continued neglecting its duties and failing to provide the transparency the American people deserve," the spokesperson said. "Congress shouldn’t have to threaten contempt to obtain an unclassified document." 

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Grassley's spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "after withholding information from Congress and the American people, and hiding behind the guise of protecting ‘sources and methods,’ the Department of Justice has now exposed their own source." 

"Accordingly, this indictment isn’t enough – the public has a right to see all the underlying evidence supporting the Biden Justice Department’s case," the spokesperson said. "The Biden administration must show its work."

The FBI declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.