Ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov pleads guilty to lying about the Bidens

A California man who was charged with lying to the FBI about fake criminal allegations against President Biden and his son Hunter pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday.

Alexander Smirnov was indicted in February by special counsel David Weiss, who was appointed to lead the now-defunct investigations into Hunter Biden. The president pardoned his son earlier this month.

A longtime confidential informant, Smirnov told his FBI handler in 2020 that the two Bidens each accepted $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma several years earlier. The claims "were false, as the Defendant knew," according to the charging documents filed against him.

The fake allegations were memorialized in an FBI document that became a central piece of evidence in congressional Republicans' efforts to investigate the Biden family. 

Last week, prosecutors from Weiss' office wrote Smirnov would plead guilty to one count of creating a false federal record —the FBI document filed with his false information — and three tax-related counts. The new tax charges were filed last month.

Wearing a white jumpsuit and in chains, Smirnov appeared in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday to enter the guilty pleas. He is due to be sentenced on Jan. 8.

With the agreement and the pardon of Hunter Biden, Weiss' cases, and likely his time as special counsel, are coming to a close. Weiss was appointed U.S. attorney during the Trump administration, and the Biden administration kept him on to continue his Hunter Biden probe. Attorney General Merrick Garland elevated him to special counsel earlier this year. 

Weiss' office declined to comment on the plea agreement, and an attorney for Smirnov did not immediately respond to a request for comment.