US-Israeli ex-FBI informant indicted for lying about Bidens returned to US custody

Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, center, leaves the courthouse on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, center, leaves the courthouse on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

A former FBI informant who claims to have links to Russian intelligence and is charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family was again taken into custody Thursday in Las Vegas, two days after a judge released him.

Alexander Smirnov, 43, was arrested this morning while meeting with his lawyers at their offices in downtown Las Vegas.

It came after prosecutors asked a judge in California, where the case was originally filed, to reconsider Smirnov’s custody status while he awaits trial. No hearing was held before he was arrested.

His attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement they want an immediate hearing on his detention and will again push for his release. A judge in Las Vegas gave prosecutors until Friday afternoon to respond to Smirnov’s motion for a new hearing.

A copy of the arrest warrant that Smirnov’s lawyers included as an exhibit in their request for the new hearing shows he was arrested on the same charges — making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.

Prosecutors have accused Smirnov 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.

Smirnov has not entered a plea to the charges, but his lawyers have said their client is presumed innocent and they look forward to defending him at trial.

A spokesman for Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who charged Smirnov, confirmed Thursday that Smirnov had been arrested again, but did not have additional comment. Smirnov is in the custody of US Marshals in Nevada, says Gary Schofield, the chief marshal in Las Vegas.

Smirnov, who has dual US-Israeli citizenship and lived in Israel for a decade, was first arrested last week in Las Vegas, where he now lives, on his return from overseas.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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