Judge sets April trial date for ex-FBI informant charged with false intel about the Bidens
The former FBI informant charged with providing false information about Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden related to Ukraine is scheduled to face trial in April.
The former FBI informant who was charged with providing false information to agents about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign is scheduled to face trial in April.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, will face a jury trial on April 23 before U.S. District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, according to the court docket. At a hearing on Monday, the judge ordered that Smirnov be held until trial.
Federal prosecutors charged Smirnov earlier this month with making false statements and creating a false and fictitious record. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. They alleged in the indictment that he provided "false derogatory information to the FBI" about the Bidens, including promoting during an interview with FBI agents in September 2023 "a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials."
In a filing last week, prosecutors wrote that some information that Smirnov had shared about the Bidens came from “officials associated with Russian intelligence.” They added that Smirnov “is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”
Some of the false claims Smirnov told the FBI involved that executives associated with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Hunter Biden had worked, had paid the Bidens $5 million each. Smirnov said that a Burisma official said it would take 10 years for investigators to locate "illicit payments" to President Biden, according to the indictment.
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