By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-12-16 18:11:23 | Updated at 2024-12-16 20:50:37
2 hours ago
A former FBI informant pleaded guilty on Monday to lying about a fake bribery scheme involving US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.
Alexander Smirnov entered his plea in Los Angeles to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income, according to court papers.
Prosecutors and the defence have agreed to recommend a sentence of between four and six years in prison, according to the plea agreement.
Smirnov will get credit for the time he has served since his February arrest on charges that he told his Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid Joe Biden and Hunter Biden US$5 million each around 2015.
Smirnov had been an informant for more than a decade when he made the explosive allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, after “expressing bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, prosecutors said.
But Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017, according to court documents. An FBI field office investigated the allegations and recommended the case be closed in August 2020, according to charging documents.
No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes as president or in his previous office as vice-president.
