An ex-FBI informant whose testimony was key to the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden admitted to investigators that he has been in contact with several Russian intelligence officials who had a role in “passing a story” about Hunter Biden to federal officials, new documents filed by federal prosecutors say.
According to the filing by prosecutors released Tuesday, Smirnov has reported having meetings with Russian officials for many years, has lied to officials in attempts to interfere with the 2020 election, and is still actively involved in spreading Russian intelligence-fueled lies implicating the Bidens regarding the upcoming presidential election. In all, the prosecutors’ filings paint a picture of a man who is willing to lie in collaboration with Russian officials in order to take down Biden, who prosecutors noted he has “expressed bias” against.
The documents say that Smirnov, a citizen of Israel, has claimed relationships with “top officials” in Russian intelligence, and says he’s met with them as recently as December 2023. Prosecutors say he has previously changed his “false narrative” on the Bidens after his purported meetings with Russian officials in earlier testimonies.
“[T]he false information he provided was not trivial. It targeted the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties targeted the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties in the United States,” the prosecutors wrote.
“The effects of Smirnov’s false statements and fabricated information continue to be felt to this day,” they added, perhaps referring to Republicans’ messy Biden impeachment probe, in which they have repeatedly cited information provided by Smirnov.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged Smirnov with lying to the FBI and creating a false record in an official investigation, severely undermining a key record that Republicans had used in their impeachment inquiry. The new testimony suggests that, not only is this information compromised, it is also at least in part planted by foreign officials who have had a vested interest in boosting far right interests in U.S. politics for many years.
Tuesday’s filing details that Smirnov told officials of “kompromat,” or compromising information about a high level official that can be used as blackmail, that Russian officials gathered on Hunter Biden. Officials had reportedly intercepted phone calls at a hotel abroad, including several calls by Hunter Biden, that the Russian government planned to use “in the 2024 election, depending on who the candidates will be.”
The testimony shows that Smirnov “is actively peddling new lies” about the current election, the prosecutors wrote.
“Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues,” the filing said. “What this shows is that the misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020. He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November. In light of that fact there is a serious risk he will flee in order to avoid accountability for his actions.”
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