Ex-FBI Source Accused Of Lying About Bidens And Having Russian Contacts Is Returned To US Custody

A for­mer FBI infor­mant who claims to have links to Russian intel­li­gence and is charged with lying about a mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar bribery scheme involv­ing President Joe Biden’s fam­i­ly was again tak­en into cus­tody Thursday in Las Vegas, two days after a judge released him, his attor­neys said.

Alexander Smirnov was arrest­ed dur­ing a meet­ing Thursday morn­ing at his lawyers’ law offices in down­town Las Vegas. The arrest came after pros­e­cu­tors appealed the judge’s rul­ing allow­ing 43-year-old Smirnov, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli cit­i­zen­ship, to be released with a GPS mon­i­tor ahead of tri­al. He is charged with mak­ing a false state­ment and cre­at­ing a false and fic­ti­tious record.

Attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld said in a state­ment that they have request­ed an imme­di­ate hear­ing on his deten­tion and will again push for his release. They said Smirnov was tak­en into cus­tody on a war­rant issued in California for the same charges.

The case against Smirnov was orig­i­nal­ly filed in California, where he used to live. Several sealed entries were list­ed in the court dock­et, but no addi­tion­al details about his return to cus­tody were imme­di­ate­ly available.

A spokesman for Justice Department spe­cial coun­sel David Weiss, who is pros­e­cut­ing Smirnov, con­firmed that Smirnov had been arrest­ed again, but did not have addi­tion­al com­ment. He is in the cus­tody of U.S. Marshals in Nevada, said Gary Schofield, the chief mar­shal in Las Vegas.

Smirnov was first arrest­ed last week in Las Vegas, where he now lives, while return­ing from overseas.

Prosecutors say Smirnov false­ly told his FBI han­dler that exec­u­tives from the Ukrainian ener­gy com­pa­ny Burisma paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 mil­lion each around 2015. The claim became cen­tral to the Republican impeach­ment inquiry of President Biden in Congress.

Smirnov has not entered a plea to the charges, but his lawyers have said their client is pre­sumed inno­cent and they look for­ward to defend­ing him at trial.

As part of their push to keep him in cus­tody, pros­e­cu­tors said Smirnov told inves­ti­ga­tors after his arrest last week that “offi­cials asso­ci­at­ed with Russian intel­li­gence were involved in pass­ing a sto­ry” about Hunter Biden. They said Smirnov’s self-report­ed con­tact with Russian offi­cials was recent and exten­sive, and said he had planned to meet with for­eign intel­li­gence con­tacts dur­ing an upcom­ing trip abroad.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts on Tuesday had said he was con­cerned about Smirnov’s access to mon­ey pros­e­cu­tors esti­mat­ed at $6 mil­lion but not­ed that fed­er­al guide­lines required him to fash­ion “the least restric­tive con­di­tions” ahead of tri­al. Smirnov was also ordered to stay in the area and sur­ren­der his passports.

“Do not make a mock­ery out of me,” Albregts said to Smirnov, warn­ing that he’d be placed back into the fed­er­al government’s cus­tody if he vio­lat­ed any of his con­di­tions. His lawyers say he had been “ful­ly com­pli­ant” with his release conditions.

Prosecutors quick­ly appealed to U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright in California.

“The cir­cum­stances of the offens­es charged — that Smirnov lied to his FBI han­dler after a 10-year rela­tion­ship where the two spoke near­ly every day — means that Smirnov can­not be trust­ed to pro­vide truth­ful infor­ma­tion to pre­tri­al ser­vices,” pros­e­cu­tors wrote in court doc­u­ments. “The effects of Smirnov’s false state­ments and fab­ri­cat­ed infor­ma­tion con­tin­ue to be felt to this day. Now the per­son­al stakes for Smirnov are even high­er. His free­dom is on the line.”

Smirnov had been an infor­mant for more than a decade when he made the explo­sive alle­ga­tions about the Bidens in June 2020, after “express­ing bias” about Joe Biden as a pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, pros­e­cu­tors said.

But Smirnov had only rou­tine busi­ness deal­ings with Burisma start­ing in 2017, accord­ing to court doc­u­ments. No evi­dence has emerged that Joe Biden act­ed cor­rupt­ly or accept­ed bribes in his cur­rent role or pre­vi­ous office as vice president.

While his iden­ti­ty wasn’t pub­licly known before the indict­ment, Smirnov’s claims have played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to inves­ti­gate the pres­i­dent and his fam­i­ly, and helped spark what is now a House impeach­ment inquiry into Biden. Republicans pur­su­ing inves­ti­ga­tions of the Bidens demand­ed the FBI release the unredact­ed form doc­u­ment­ing the unver­i­fied alle­ga­tions, though they acknowl­edged they couldn’t con­firm if they were true.

Democrats called for an end to the probe after the Smirnov indict­ment came down last week, while Republicans dis­tanced the inquiry from his claims and said they would con­tin­ue to “fol­low the facts.”

Smirnov’s lawyers say he has been liv­ing in Las Vegas for two years with his long­time girl­friend and requires ongo­ing treat­ment and dai­ly med­ica­tions for “sig­nif­i­cant med­ical issues relat­ed to his eyes.” He lived in California for 16 years pri­or to mov­ing to Nevada.