Hunter Biden and Burisma: FBI source accused of fabricating allegations of Biden bribery

A former FBI informant has been accused of lying about a plan to get money illegally from a Ukrainian company, involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Alexander Smirnov, who is 43 years old, is being accused of saying things that are not true about the Bidens getting money from a company called Burisma that works with energy.

The Justice Department said Mr Smirnov lied to the FBI because he didn’t like President Biden.

The Republicans used his statements to try to impeach Mr.

Hunter Biden will speak to the House Oversight Committee this month about the things people are saying about him, even though he says they’re not true.

Mr Smirnov was taken into custody in Las Vegas on Thursday after coming back from a trip outside the country, according to the Justice Department. He was accused of lying and making up fake documents.

Special Counsel David Weiss accused Mr Smirnov of giving wrong information to the FBI about the president and his son in June 2020.

This info was given after Mr. Biden became the Democratic nominee for the 2020 election, prosecutors said. Smirnov had shown bias against the former vice-president before this.

Republican members of Congress have been using Mr. Smirnov’s claims for the past year to investigate and possibly remove President Biden from office.

When the investigation was announced, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that a reliable FBI informant claimed that the Biden family was offered a bribe.

Republicans asked the FBI to share their notes about Mr. Smirnov’s statements and they were successful.

At that time, important Republicans in Congress said the claim was not proven, and there was no proof that Joe Biden got money from Ukraine.

Mr Smirnov said that Burisma hired the president’s son, Hunter, to keep them safe from problems because of his dad, during meetings in 2015 and 2016.

At that time, Mr. Biden was the second-in-command to Barack Obama, and his son Hunter was on the board of a company called Burisma.

Burisma was also being looked into by the Ukrainian prosecutor for possible criminal activity.

Mr Smirnov said the company gave $5 million to Mr. Biden and his son so that Hunter could help with the company’s legal problems because of his dad.

The prosecutors said that Mr. Smirnov only talked with Burisma officials in 2017, after Mr. Biden was not vice-president anymore and after the Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016.

“In simple terms, the indictment said that when Joe Biden couldn’t affect US policy and the Prosecutor General was no longer in office,”

The prosecutors said that Mr. Smirnov turned his regular business dealings with Burisma into accusations of bribery against Joe Biden in 2017 because he didn’t like the president and didn’t want him to win the election.

When FBI agents asked Mr. Smirnov again in 2023, he allegedly changed parts of his story and made new accusations after saying he had met with Russian officials.

If found guilty, Mr Smirnov could be in prison for up to 25 years.