WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that the paid FBI informant accused of fabricating a high-profile $10 million bribery allegation against President Biden and his son Hunter recently shared another false story — this time from Russian intelligence — involving purported Kyiv hotel recordings of the first son.
The claim was easily debunked because Hunter Biden, 54, “has never traveled to Ukraine,” prosecutors wrote in a motion to keep Alexander Smirnov behind bars pending trial — even though Hunter earned millions of dollars from natural gas company Burisma Holdings during and immediately after his father’s vice presidency.
Smirnov, 43, “is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November,” said the latest filing, which claims that Smirnov, a dual US-Israeli citizen, “has access to over $6 million in liquid funds.”
Smirnov was arrested on Feb. 14 in Las Vegas after a California grand jury indicted him on two felony counts of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record for statements to the FBI in a June 2020 FD-1023 form that House Republicans last year battled for access to read.
The new court documents do not further illuminate why Smirnov allegedly lied about Joe and Hunter Biden taking bribes, which prosecutors say was disproven due to the fact that Smirnov wasn’t working with Burisma at the time he claimed to have conversations with key company figures.
The new filing does not connect the allegedly bogus bribery claim to Russian intelligence — while initial charging papers said Smirnov showed a political “bias” against the Democratic Party leader, indicating one possible motive.
It’s unclear if the later tipoff described anything in particular that purportedly was recorded at the hotel.
“During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about [Hunter Biden],” says the court filing by attorneys working for special counsel David Weiss, whose team is prosecuting the first son for tax and gun charges.
“At his meeting with FBI investigators in September 2023, Smirnov pushed a new story about [Joe] and [Hunter Biden], as described in the indictment. Specifically, Smirnov wanted them to look into whether
[Hunter Biden] was recorded in a hotel in Kiev called the Premier Palace,” the document says.
“Smirnov told investigators that the entire Premier Palace Hotel is ‘wired’ and under the control of
the Russians. Smirnov claimed that [Hunter Biden] went to the hotel many times and that he had seen video footage of [Hunter Biden] entering the Premier Palace Hotel.”
Later, in December, “Smirnov reported to his [FBI] Handler about a recent overseas trip, where Smirnov attended a meeting with Russian Official 2, who Smirnov has described as a high-ranking member of a specific Russian foreign intelligence service,” the filing says.
“According to Smirnov, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss a potential resolution to Russia’s war against Ukraine. During this same trip, Smirnov apparently attended a separate meeting with Russian Official 1, the individual who controls groups that are engaged in overseas assassination efforts. During this meeting with Russian Official 1, Russian Official 1 claimed that another individual, Russian Official 4, the head of a particular unit of a Russian Intelligence Service, ran an intelligence operation at a ‘club’ located at a particular hotel.”
“Smirnov told the FBI Handler that the Russian Intelligence Service intercepted cell phone calls made by guests at the hotel. The Russian Intelligence Service intercepted several calls placed by prominent U.S. persons the Russian government may use as ‘kompromat’ in the 2024 election, depending on who the candidates will be. As described below, this story, which again was relayed by Smirnov to his Handler in/about December, 2023, appears to mirror the story that Smirnov was pushing on investigators and prosecutors during their meeting with him in September, 2023 (in which Smirnov pushed investigators to look into whether [Hunter Biden] had been recorded in a foreign hotel).”
Dubious allegations of incriminating hotel recordings have swirled before in US politics.
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Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was accused during the 2016 campaign of paying prostitutes to urinate on each other on a bed that had been slept in by former President Barack Obama at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow.
Trump denied the allegation, which was contained in a dossier to the FBI that was prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele, who heard it from Russian citizen Igor Danchenko.
Danchenko was indicted in 2021 for allegedly lying to the FBI, but was acquitted by a jury in 2022.
In the bribery allegation that prosecutors say has been debunked, Smirnov alleged that he had conversations with Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma Holdings.
He claimed Zlochevsky said he was coerced into paying Joe and Hunter Biden $10 million in bribes for assistance in ousting prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin.
Burisma paid Hunter Biden a salary of up to $1 million per year beginning in early 2014 when his father assumed control of US policy toward Ukraine.
His close business associate Devon Archer, who also served on the Burisma board, told Congress in July that he was unaware of any bribes but noted that the $10 million figure was roughly what he and Hunter were paid.