Trial of ex-FBI informant indicted for lying about Bidens delayed amid new tax evasion charges
A California man who prosecutors alleged lied to federal agents and pushed fake criminal allegations against President Biden and his son Hunter now faces new charges of tax evasion from special counsel David Weiss, according to court records.
Alexander Smirnov was an FBI informant for about a decade, providing information to federal investigators in what his defense attorneys claimed in court filings demonstrated an “undivided, years-long loyalty to the United States.”
But Weiss — the Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. attorney who was kept on during the Biden administration and later elevated to the role of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland to continue the Hunter Biden probes — alleged in a February 2024 indictment that Smirnov illegally made false claims to FBI handlers about Hunter and Mr. Biden that dated back to 2020.
William T. Robles / AP
Smirnov was accused of lying to investigators when he told them the two Bidens had each accepted $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The claims “were false, as the Defendant knew,” according to the charging documents filed against him.
CBS News investigation published earlier this year revealed that serious doubts about Smirnov’s credibility were raised almost a decade ago.
The FBI declined to comment on the results of the CBS News investigation earlier this year.
Weiss secured a conviction against Hunter Biden in Delaware on illegal gun charges and a guilty plea from the president’s son in a second case in California in which Hunter Biden admitted to tax fraud. He is set to be sentenced in both cases later this month.
The trial conviction and guilty plea were the results of a protracted legal battle between Weiss’s office and Hunter Biden’s legal team after an initial plea and diversion agreement fell apart and ultimately were rejected by a federal judge in 2023.
The special counsel has faced criticism from members of Congress and whistleblowers over his handling of the Hunter Biden probe.
Daniel Klaidman,
Scott MacFarlane,
and
Pat Milton
contributed to this report.
Robert Legare
Source: cbsnews.com