The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records.
The ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, who is a dual US-Israeli citizen, has been in jail since his arrest last February.
The sentencing in Los Angeles wraps up one of the final remnants of special counsel David Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden and related matters. The only order of business that appears to be unsettled is Weiss’ final report, which, per federal regulations, will be submitted to the attorney general, who can then release it to the public.
Smirnov’s bombshell indictment – and the subsequent public repudiation of his fake bribery claims – helped derail the Republican impeachment push against Biden. Prosecutors hit Smirnov with additional tax charges in November, and with a trial looming, he pleaded guilty last month to causing the creation of a false FBI record, as well as three counts of tax evasion.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to ask the judge for no more than six years in prison, and Smirnov’s team agreed to ask for no less than four years. Smirnov has also pledged to pay about $675,000 in restitution to the IRS, to make up for his tax evasion.
In court filings, prosecutors argued in favor of a six-year prison sentence, calling Smirnov a “liar and a tax cheat” who “betrayed the United States.” Prosecutors said his baseless corruption allegations against the Bidens were “among the most serious kinds of election interference one can imagine,” because they roiled both the 2020 and 2024 election cycles.
Smirnov’s lawyers requested a four-year prison term. In court filings, they said he has no criminal record, is ailing from severe glaucoma in both eyes, and “his remorse is sincere.” They submitted letters from loved ones, who lauded Smirnov as a “deeply patriotic and proud American” who “did everything for friends and family” and “always stood for justice.”
Born in the Soviet Union, Smirnov and his family immigrated to Israel as a child, and he later moved to the United States. He became a naturalized citizen and a prized informant for the FBI. But according to prosecutors, he later started expressing bias toward Biden, and invented the Ukraine bribery narrative to hurt Biden’s 2020 campaign against Trump.
The Justice Department secretly probed Smirnov’s allegations in 2020, but nothing came of it. Three years later, during the run-up to the 2024 campaign, congressional Republicans brought national attention to Smirnov’s unproven allegations, and touted his record as an FBI informant. Their claims quickly went viral in the right-wing media ecosystem.
Amid that GOP scrutiny, Weiss’ team re-interviewed Smirnov in 2023 to vet his allegations as they also investigated Hunter Biden. But Weiss concluded Smirnov “was lying” and “should be prosecuted himself” for repeatedly deceiving the FBI, prosecutors said in filings.
Weiss indicted Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges. He was convicted by a jury last year of three gun felonies, and later pleaded guilty to nine federal tax offenses. President Biden granted his son an unconditional pardon in December, before the sentencing in either case.