WASHINGTON —Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who made up a bribery story that implicated President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, was sentenced today to 6 years. False claims he made were the centerpiece of the Republican impeachment case against Biden.
Smirnov pleaded guilty last month in a Los Angeles federal court to tax fraud and lying to the FBI about the made up bribery scheme which was supposed to influence the 2020 election.
He claimed that executives at Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid $5 million each to then Vice President Biden and his son in 2015. Prosecutors said Smirnov had a "bias" against Biden as a presidential candidate when he made the false claim in 2020. Investigators later found out that Smirnov’s business dealings with Burisma started in 2017, a year after Biden’s vice presidential term ended.
The claim, which was deemed baseless, “caused a firestorm in Congress” when it came up during the House impeachment inquiry into Biden, prosecutors said. The Biden administration called the impeachment effort a “stunt.”
The Republican lawmakers who can’t prove the claims were false before Smirnov was arrested asked the FBI to unredact the form with the unsubstantiated claims.
In committing his crimes he betrayed the United States, a country that showed him nothing but generosity, including giving him the greatest honor it can bestow—citizenship," prosecutors led by Justice Department special counsel David Weiss said in court filings. "He repaid the trust. by trying to interfere in a Presidential election.
Smirnov was arrested in February. He will get credit for time served. Additional tax charges against him revealed he concealed millions in income from 2020 to 2022. His attorneys, Richard Schonfeld and David Chesnoff, asked for a sentence of no more than 4 years citing Smirnov’s health issues and “substantial assistance” as an FBI informant for over a decade.
“Mr. Smirnov has learned a hard lesson and promises to this Court he will not find himself on this side of the law again,” his attorneys wrote.
The case is part of a larger series of legal cases surrounding Hunter Biden and former President Donald Trump. Hunter Biden was convicted on gun and tax charges but was pardoned by his father, President Biden who called the process “political.”
Special counsel Jack Smith who has been handling the federal cases against Trump dismissed charges of election interference and mishandling classified documents after Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris in November. Smirnov’s attorneys compared his sentence to Hunter Biden and Trump saying both “have gotten off scot free.”
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