A former FBI informant who fabricated statements to the bureau that contributed to a Republican congressional investigation into the Biden family has been indicted on tax evasion charges.
Alexander Smirnov told the FBI as a confidential informant that the head of Ukrainian energy company Burisma told him he paid both President Biden and his son Hunter Biden $5 million.
Although the claim was false, it nonetheless became the center of a Republican investigation into the Bidens and increased scrutiny of special counsel David Weiss, who later brought tax charges against Hunter Biden.
With the new indictment, Weiss has brought tax charges against Smirnov, including two counts of tax evasion and eight counts related to falsifying tax returns.
He is accused of concealing millions of dollars in income he earned between 2020 and 2022.
Mr. Smirnov's attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schoenfeld, said in a statement: “Mr. Smirnov intends to fight these allegations vigorously with the same intensity with which he fought the original charges. ” he said.
Smirnov was first indicted in February, with the Justice Department writing that he fabricated the charges because he opposed President Biden's candidacy.
“As alleged in the indictment, the events that Mr. Smirnov first reported to FBI agents in June 2020 were fabricated,” the Justice Department said in a press release announcing the grand jury indictment.
“The indictment alleges that in 2017, the defendant changed his routine and non-routine business contacts with Burisma and later turned the allegations into bribery charges against Public Official 1 after he expressed bias against Public Official 1 and his presidential candidate. ,” they added, referring to President Biden.
Republican investigators have made the bribery allegations a top priority in their push for impeachment, with House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) at one point saying the corruption allegations were “important” in the potential impeachment case against Biden. He called it “an important element”.
Although Republicans ultimately did not impeach President Biden, they nevertheless released a report ahead of the Democratic National Convention accusing him of impeachable conduct.
But for Hunter Biden, the intense Republican scrutiny has brought more attention to his own legal troubles.
Weiss was elevated to special counsel after two IRS whistleblowers claimed they were unable to bring more aggressive tax charges against the president's son.
The judge later rejected a plea deal that Weiss tried to negotiate with Hunter Biden, and when that fell apart, the judge instead convicted him on multiple firearms charges.
Weiss has since filed multiple tax charges against Hunter Biden, with a jury on track to convict him on three felony tax counts and six misdemeanor counts.
