The discredited FBI informant behind the allegations of bribery against Joe and Hunter Biden was arrested again on Thursday morning after a judge ordered for him to be released from custody, his attorneys said in a court filing.
Alexander Smirnov, the former informant, was arrested in his attorney’s offices and they are demanding a second detention hearing to remedy the situation. His lawyers said in a motion his arrest was unwarranted because he was complying with the judge’s order and did not leave Clark County, Nevada.
Smirnov was initially arrested on February 14th for giving false statements to the FBI alleging Joe and Hunter Biden were bribed by a Ukrainian oligarch. His criminal indictment was unsealed the following day, and his initial detention hearing took place on February 20th in Nevada, where Smirnov was being held.
Special counsel David Weiss requested on Wednesday for a judge to reconsider an order by another judge granting Smirnov temporary release at the conclusion of his detention hearing.
Weiss and his team of prosecutors filed an application in California for U.S. District Judge Otis Wright to review an order granted by Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts in Nevada releasing Smirnov from custody and allowing him to appear in California. Judge Wright issued an arrest warrant ordering that Smirnov be brought to California to appear before the judge.
“First, he claims to have contacts with multiple foreign intelligence agencies and had plans to leave the United States two days after he was arrested last week for a months-long, multi-country foreign trip. During this trip, the defendant claimed to be meeting with foreign intelligence contacts. Those foreign intelligence agencies could resettle Smirnov outside the United States if he were released,” federal prosecutors noted.
They follow up by pointing out Smirnov’s $6 million of available funds and his alleged false statements to pretrial services about the amount of money to which he has access. Smirnov is a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who could theoretically obtain a new passport at a nearby Israeli consulate to flee the country.
Judge Albregts agreed with prosecutors that Smirnov posed a significant flight risk but decided the government did not prove he could be trusted to attend his court appearance under a certain set of conditions.
“At that hearing, United States Magistrate Judge Albregts found the government had proven that the defendant posed a serious risk of flight by a preponderance of the evidence but that the government had not proven by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions could reasonably assure his appearance,” prosecutors said.
“United States Magistrate Judge Albregts ordered Smirnov released on a personal recognizance bond and conditions.”
In a detention memo filed Tuesday, Weiss and his team gave a detailed account of the information Smirnov disclosed about his connections to Russian officials, including those in Russia’s intelligence services.
“During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about Businessperson 1,” the prosecutors said. The businessman in question appears to be Hunter Biden based on his description as the son of a political figure who ran for president. Federal prosecutors relayed the details of the detention memo in the application for reconsideration of Albregts’s order.
Smirnov is facing federal charges in California for making false statements to the FBI alleging that Joe and Hunter Biden were bribed $10 million by Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. Disparaging text messages Smirnov sent his FBI handler about Joe Biden are attached to his criminal indictment. Weiss’ application for reconsideration repeats many of the details contained in the indictment.
The information Smirnov gave to the FBI was memorialized in an FBI document used to record allegations brought by a confidential human source (CHS) to the FBI’s attention. Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) publicized the FBI document in July after the FBI allowed a select group of lawmakers to view a redacted version of the document in June.
Hunter Biden was a member of Burisma’s board from 2014-19, and at one point, his monthly salary exceeded $80,000, bank records show. Burisma dropped his salary significantly around the time his father’s vice presidency concluded, according to Hunter Biden’s federal tax indictment in California resulting from Weiss’ criminal investigation. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty in January to the tax charges and hopes to have them dismissed.
His attorneys have cited Smirnov’s indictment as a reason to be skeptical of Weiss’ criminal investigation.