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Former FBI source Alexander Smirnov has struck a plea agreement with the office of special counsel David Weiss, agreeing to plead guilty on several counts.
The document notes that Smirnov is agreeing to plead guilty to "Count Two of the indictment in United States v. Alexander Smirnov … which charges defendant with causing the creation of a false and fictitious record in a federal investigation … " and agreeing to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion.
Smirnov is accused of providing false information to the FBI.
In this courtroom sketch, defendant Alexander Smirnov speaks in Federal court in Los Angeles, Feb. 26, 2024. (William T. Robles/Associated Press)
He signed off on a statement of facts in support of the plea agreement, which echoes allegations that had been made against him in an indictment.
Smirnov allegedly "provided false derogatory information to the FBI about Public Official 1, an elected official in the Obama-Biden Administration who left office in January 2017, and Businessperson 1, the son of Public Official 1, in 2020, after Public Official 1 became a candidate for President of the United States of America."
The allegation apparently refers to President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, though the two are not specifically identified by name.
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World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden (L) and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attend the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016, in Washington, D.C. (Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)
Smirnov had served as a "confidential human source" with the FBI.
The material also alleges that Smirnov "claimed executives associated with Burisma, including Burisma Official 1, admitted to him that they hired Businessperson 1 to ‘protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,’ and later that they had specifically paid $5 million each to Public Official 1 and Businessperson 1, when Public Official 1 was still in office, so that '[Businessperson 1] will take care of all those issues through his dad,' referring to a criminal investigation being conducted by the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General into Burisma and to 'deal with [the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General].'"
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U.S. President Joe Biden embraces Hunter Biden during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 19, 2024 in Chicago, Ill. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"The events Defendant first reported to the Handler in June 2020 were fabrications. In truth and fact, Defendant had contact with executives from Burisma in 2017, after the end of the Obama-Biden Administration and after the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016 — in other words, when Public Official 1 could not engage in any official act to influence U.S. policy and when the Prosecutor General was no longer in office," the statement of facts asserts.
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"Defendant 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."
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