An FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, is facing a charge of lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and a Ukrainian energy company.
The alleged false claim is said to be central to the Republican impeachment inquiry against President Biden in the Congress.
Reports said that Smirnov falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said in an indictment.
He told his handler that an executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors also said that Smirnov in fact had only routine business dealings with the company in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate.
The 43-year-old Smirnov was in court in Las Vegas briefly Thursday after being charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. He however, did not enter a plea.
If convicted, Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
