Joe Biden’s DOJ does not want FBI Informant Alexander Smirnov to have any chance of escaping the country and has convinced a judge to keep him in jail while he awaits trial.
This comes after a judge released him with electronic GPS monitoring to ensure he doesn’t flee. But apparently that wasn’t good enough for Merrick Garland.
Here’s more from the AP:
A former FBI informant charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family must remain behind bars while he awaits trial, a judge ruled Monday, reversing an earlier order releasing the man.
U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II in Los Angeles ordered Alexander Smirnov’s detention after prosecutors raised concerns that the man who claims to have ties to Russian intelligence could flee the country. Wright said he did not believe there are release conditions he could set that would guarantee Smirnov would not escape.
“There is nothing garden variety about this case,” Wright said before announcing his decision. “I have not changed my mind. This man will be remanded pending trial.”
Smirnov pleaded not guilty to the charges accusing him of falsely telling his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015. The claim became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry of President Biden in Congress.
A different judge had released Smirnov from jail on electronic GPS monitoring after his Feb. 14 arrest, but Wright ordered him to be taken back into custody last week after prosecutors asked to reconsider Smirnov’s detention. Wright said in a written order unsealed Friday that Smirnov’s lawyers’ efforts to free him were “likely to facilitate his absconding from the United States.”
In urging the judge to keep him in jail, prosecutors revealed Smirnov has reported to the FBI having extensive contact with officials associated with Russian intelligence, and claimed that such officials were involved in passing a story to him about Hunter Biden. Prosecutors said Smirnov had been planning to travel overseas to multiple countries days after his Feb. 14 arrest where he said he was meeting with foreign intelligence contacts.
Prosecutor Leo Wise said Smirnov could not be trusted to tell the truth to those monitoring his whereabouts if released from jail, noting that Smirnov was pushing a new false story about Hunter Biden during a meeting with investigators as recently as September. Prosecutors have said in court papers that Smirnov is “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections.”
It wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out the FBI knew this story was untrue when they gave it to Republicans and were waiting until the election year, right before impeachment, to jerk the rug out from under Republicans.
Or conversely, I wouldn’t be shocked to find out the story is true and the DOJ is just trying to run interference for Biden after making him look bad with the Hunter special prosecutor.
Really, I could see it going either way. Which do you think is more plausible?