Former FBI informant pleads guilty to lying about phony bribery scheme involving the Bidens

Source: AP

Updated 1:19 PM EST, December 16, 2024


LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former FBI informant pleaded guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Alexander Smirnov entered his plea to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income. An attorney for Smirnov, 44, declined to comment after the hearing in Los Angeles federal court.

Prosecutors and the defense have agreed to recommend a sentence of between four and six years in prison when he’s sentenced next month. Smirnov will get credit for the time he has served since his February arrest on charges that he told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015.

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.

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