By Ryan J. Reilly, Gary Grumbach and Sarah Fitzpatrick -
NBC News
A former FBI informant was charged this Thursday with two counts for allegedly providing the office with false information about the president, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, disliked Joe Biden and was arrested in Las Vegas after returning from a trip abroad, according to the Justice Department.
The case arose from the investigation led by special counsel David Weiss, who is also
leading the case against Hunter Biden
.
Weiss had been appointed by then-President Donald Trump as the top federal prosecutor in Delaware.
President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in Syracuse, New York, on February 4, 2023. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images file
The 37-page indictment alleges that Smirnov had been a confidential source for the FBI since 2010 and
"provided false negative information to the FBI"
about both Bidens, after Joe Biden became a presidential candidate in 2020.
Smirnov allegedly told the FBI, falsely, that officials at Burisma – the Ukrainian energy company Hunter Biden worked for – had told him they hired Hunter Biden because "he would protect us, through his father, from all kinds of problems." .
Smirnov allegedly told the FBI another falsehood: that Burisma officials had told him they
paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden
$5 million and that it would take investigators 10 years to find the illicit payments to the president.
A source familiar with the matter told NBC News that Hunter Biden does not know the individual who was accused and does not believe he has ever met him.
According to the indictment, Smirnov's claims to the FBI, which he first made in June 2020, "were fabrications" and in reality he only "had contact with Myanmar executives in 2017," when Joe Biden had
left office. vice president
and had "no ability" to influence American politics.