Ex-FBI source accused of lying about Bidens and having Russian contacts is returned to US custody

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, RIO YAMAT and KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — 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.

Alexander Smirnov, 43, was arrested Thursday morning while meeting with his lawyers at their offices in downtown Las Vegas. It came after prosecutors asked a judge in California, where the case originally was filed, to reconsider Smirnov’s custody status while he awaits trial. No hearing was held before he was arrested.

His attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement they want an immediate hearing on his detention and will again push for his release. A judge in Las Vegas gave prosecutors until Friday afternoon to respond to Smirnov’s motion for a new hearing.

A copy of the arrest warrant that Smirnov’s lawyers included as an exhibit in their request for the new hearing shows he was arrested on the same charges — making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.

Prosecutors have accused Smirnov of falsely telling his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had 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.

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

Smirnov, who has dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, was first arrested last week in Las Vegas, where he now lives, while returning from overseas.

As part of their push to keep him in custody, prosecutors said Smirnov told investigators after his first arrest 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.

In his ruling Tuesday to release Smirnov on GPS monitoring, U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts in Las Vegas said he was concerned about Smirnov’s access to what prosecutors estimate is $6 million in funds, but noted that federal guidelines required him to fashion “the least restrictive conditions” ahead of his 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 Wright in Los Angeles.

“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.

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Whitehurst reported from Washington, D.C.