(NewsNation) — A former FBI informant has been indicted for allegedly lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company.
Charging documents describe Alexander Smirnov, 43, as a former FBI confidential human source and say he provided “false and derogatory information” to federal agents about both Bidens in 2020.
In June 2020, Smirnov falsely told FBI agents that executives with Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid $5 million each to Hunter and Joe Biden in 2015 and 2016, the indictment alleges.
Smirnov lied to the FBI when he told authorities that a Burisma executive had claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” prosecutors said.
He also lied when he told the FBI that a Burisma official said he was “pushed to pay” the Bidens, according to the indictment.
“When he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023, Smirnov repeated some of his false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,” the Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday.
Smirnov is the same confidential source who generated the FD-1023 form which Republicans released last July alleging a bribery scheme involving President Biden, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to NewsNation.
The 43-year-old is charged with making a false statement to a government agent and creating a false and fictitious record.
Smirnov was arrested at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Wednesday after arriving back in the country from overseas.
The informant’s claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.