FBI informant charged with fabricating Biden bribes

What happened?

Special counsel David Weiss late Thursday unsealed charges accusing FBI informant Alexander Smirnov of falsely claiming Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, were each paid $5 million protection bribes by Ukrainian energy company Burisma in 2015 or 2016. Smirnov, 43, was arrested Wednesday at the Las Vegas airport. Weiss is prosecuting Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges.

The commentary

The indictment is a "stinging setback" for House Republicans who featured Smirnov's "explosive story" in their push to impeach Joe Biden, The New York Times said. It is "rare for the FBI to charge one of its informants with lying," The Washington Post said, but Republicans forced the issue by making Smirnov's claims a "kind of cause célèbre."

Who said what?

Smirnov "transformed his routine and unextraordinary" 2017 Burisma business contacts "into bribery allegations" against Biden after "expressing bias" against him during the 2020 campaign, the indictment said. "Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts," Hunter Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell said. Now "the air is out of their balloon."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What next?

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said his committee will "continue to follow the facts" to "determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted." Smirnov faces up to 25 years in jail if convicted.