Former FBI informant facing criminal charges for fabricating false corruption allegations against President Joe Biden and his son Hunter was re-arrested Thursday in Las Vegasdue to concern about his flight risk, his lawyers announced.
Alexander Smirnoff, 43, a US-Israeli citizen and former FBI informant who was arrested for the first time last week in this city, Nevada, is accused of lying and falsely accusing the US president and his son of receiving five million dollars each to help a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, to get rid of her problems with justice.
He was released earlier this week, despite the prosecution's suggestion to the contrary, on condition that he surrenders his passport to the authorities and can be traced. But he was arrested again yesterday morning at his lawyers' offices, the latter said.
The lawyers stressed that his presence in their offices “contradicts the idea that there was a risk of flight” of their client and asked for an urgent hearing to be held so that he can be released again.
Alexander Smirnoff gave “false information” to the FBI about “Joe and Hunter Biden,” according to the indictment against him.
The new development is a blow to the investigation ahead of House Republicans impeaching President Joe Biden in the Senate, just months before the Democrat's potential rematch with Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 election.
The right accuses Joe Biden, however, without presenting convincing evidence to date, that he used his influence during the time he was Barack Obama's vice president (2009-2017) to facilitate his son Hunter in transactions of dubious legality in Ukraine and in China.
The information Mr. Smirnoff had provided was leaked and fueled the case, but it was a completely fabricated story, according to the indictment against him.
The defendant, who faces up to 25 years in prison, admitted to investigators that he received information from people connected to Russian intelligence services.
Source: News Beast
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