Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant who was arrested last week on charges of providing false information about Biden's alleged business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company, was arrested again Thursday.
Despite being released by a judge in Nevada earlier this week, Smirnov, 43, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was again detained on the orders of a judge in California, citing flight risk. The arrest took place Thursday morning at Smirnov's law offices in downtown Las Vegas, according to his attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld.
The case against Smirnov
The case against Smirnov centers on an indictment filed last week in federal court in California. It alleges that the former whistleblower served as a "confidential human source" for the FBI for at least a decade. During that time, he was repeatedly warned to provide truthful information to the FBI. However, the former informant allegedly ignored the warnings by giving false statements to the FBI and creating false records about the alleged multi-million dollar bribery scheme involving the Bidens and the Ukrainian company Burisma.
Prosecutors argue that Smirnov lied when he claimed that Burisma executives paid President Biden and his son Hunter Biden $5 million each in 2015. This statement was crucial to the Republican impeachment investigation in Congress.
"The Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against [Joe Biden], the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against [Joe Biden] and his candidacy," the indictment states. If convicted, Smirnov could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
