FBI informant lied about Hunter Biden's ties with Ukraine company — counsel

The US special counsel leading a criminal probe into Joe Biden's son said that a former FBI informant had been charged with lying about the president and Hunter Biden's involvement in business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

In a statement on Thursday, Special Counsel David Weiss said a federal grand jury had indicted Alexander Smirnov, 43, on charges of making a "false statement" and "creating a false and fictitious record" in relation to an FBI probe.

Smirnov was arrested on Wednesday at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, after his arrival in the US from overseas, Weiss said.

He told FBI agents that Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016.

Smirnov told the FBI that a Burisma executive had claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems," prosecutors said.

The allegations became a flashpoint in Congress last summer as Republicans demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations as they pursued investigations of Biden and his family.

They acknowledged at the time that it was unclear if the allegations were true.

Prosecutors say that though Smirnov claimed to have had contact with Burisma executives near the end of the Obama administration, it actually took place after Obama and Biden had left office — when Biden would have had no ability to influence US policy.

"In short, the Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy," the indictment said.

He repeated some of the false claims when FBI agents interviewed him in September 2023, changed his story about others, and "promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials," prosecutors said.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Hunter Biden's legal troubles

Hunter Biden faces a series of legal challenges ranging from business deals in Ukraine, to lying about his drug use when buying a firearm and tax evasion.

He pleaded not guilty to lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days.

His legal troubles have been a lightning rod for Republicans, who have made investigations of the president's son a key part of their impeachment inquiry of the president, who is a Democrat.

The impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son’s business dealings has lagged in the House, but the panel is pushing ahead with its work.