Russian Role in Biden Witness Story Revealed in Court Filing

A court document filed Tuesday reveals that Alexander Smirnov, recently arrested for allegedly making false statements about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, had contact with several Russian officials. Smirnov admitted that Russian intelligence officials were involved in passing him a story about Hunter Biden.

The document, filed by Justice Department Special Counsel David Weiss, requested that Smirnov be held in detention. It states that Smirnov had interactions with Russian intelligence officials, including the son of a former high-ranking Russian government official and a high-ranking member of a Russian foreign intelligence service. During a Feb. 14 interview with investigators, Smirnov confessed that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story to him about Hunter Biden.

Smirnov was arrested last week for allegedly fabricating a story he told the FBI about Burisma Holdings executives. He claimed they said they hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems” and that they paid him and President Biden $5 million bribes each.

The court document revealed that Smirnov had plans to leave the U.S. last week, has access to over $6 million in liquid funds, and can obtain a new Israeli passport at any time, indicating a risk of flight if released from custody.

The arrest of Smirnov has had significant implications. It was reported that his claims were deemed “credible” by congressional Republicans and were used prominently in the impeachment inquiry against President Biden over his alleged foreign business dealings with his son. Weiss, who has been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018, brought the indictment against Smirnov.

In a separate development, Hunter Biden’s legal team accused Weiss of allowing Smirnov’s discredited testimony to disrupt a plea deal they had offered him. They are asking a judge to make Weiss provide more information about the plea deal and their conversations about Smirnov’s tip. Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden resulted in two charges of failure to pay income tax and a felony firearm offense. However, plea negotiations fell through after Weiss indicated that more charges could be brought against Biden and the deal would not conclude the investigation. Biden’s team argued that Smirnov’s allegations “infected this case,” leading prosecutors to reverse course on the plea agreement with Biden.