Alexander Smirnov, an ex-informant who was arrested last week on charges of lying to the FBI, was arrested again on Thursday for the exact charges.
The Justice Department announced accusations against the former FBI informant for allegedly lying about the claims he had made back in 2020 that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Hunter was working for channeled bribes to Joe Biden.
A Los Angeles grand jury indicted Smirnov in a case brought by Special Counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing a separate investigation and prosecution of Hunter Biden for gun and tax charges.
The judge had ordered on Tuesday that Smirnov be released from custody on his own recognizance. Still, the Department of Justice objected to the judge’s decision and filed an emergency request for the judge to reconsider Smirnov’s release.
Smirnov, according to a court filing, was in a meeting with his attorneys in Las Vegas at the time of the second arrest. The arrest warrant issued on Thursday listed the same two charges for which he was indicted and arrested last week.
The judge had not yet responded to the DOJ’s request, according to the case docket, and it was therefore not immediately clear why Smirnov was arrested for the same charges a second time after having been released. The arrest warrant on Thursday was authorized through the Central District of California, the same federal district in which he was indicted last week. Most importantly, what is unclear yet is the nature of the lies Smirnov has been accused of.
It isn’t detailed or clarified yet which of his material statements to the same FBI he was collaborating with contradict an incontrovertible fact such as to constitute a lie and where the malicious intent behind such alleged criminal behavior would stand, considering Smirnov was obviously a trusted collaborator of the FBI as he was on their payroll four years after the alleged lie.
There is an absorbing consideration, and it goes to how such an indictment would change or impact in any way the overwhelming incontrovertible amount of evidence, including wire transfers, bank records, court orders, and witnesses proving both Burisma and the Biden’s corruption in Ukraine.
The timing of Smirnov’s arrest is furthermore very suspicious, as it comes the same week Obama’s CIA has been outed for targeting twenty-six people in the Trump circle with illegal espionage.
This is an example of breaking news that hasn’t made it to the mainstream media “oddly” again.
