On Thursday, special counsel David Weiss filed charges against former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov.
Smirnov, 43, is the confidential human source (CHS) l who claimed that President Biden received bribes from the Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma. Those allegations were documented in the infamous FD-1023 that was released by Sen. Charles Grassley last year. According to a report from CNN, Smirnov was arrested and taken into custody at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
According to the indictment, Smirnov allegedly lied when he reported that Burisma founder and CEO Mykola Zlochevsky was coerced by Joe and Hunter Biden to pay them each a $5 million bribe. The indictment claims that his story “was a fabrication, an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts that had actually occurred but at a later date than he claimed and for the purpose of pitching Burisma on the Defendant’s services and products, not for discussing bribes to [Joe Biden] when he was in office.”
Smirnov had claimed that the bribe took place when Biden was vice president during the Obama administration, but the indictment claims that it didn’t happen.
“In truth and fact, the Defendant had contact with executives from Burisma in 2017, after the end of the Obama-Biden Administration and after the then Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016, in other words, when [Joe Biden] had no ability to influence U.S. policy and when the Prosecutor General was no longer in office.”
“In short, the Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against [Joe Biden], the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against [Joe Biden] and his candidacy,” the indictment continued.
While it’s true that confidential human sources have lied before—Christopher Steele and his infamous dossier come to mind—I still have some questions about this. For one thing, why was Smirnov just arrested, yet Steele hasn’t been, despite being referred to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation back in 2018.
According to the FD-1023 form with the Burisma/Biden bribe allegations, Burisma founder and CEO Mykola Zlochevsky has 17 recordings of conversations, 15 with Hunter Biden and two with Joe Biden, that he reportedly kept as an insurance policy. The FBI originally refused to provide a copy of the FD-1023 to the House Oversight Committee, and when they finally did provide it, they attempted to cover up the existence of these alleged recordings. It wasn’t until the committee threatened FBI Director Wray with contempt that the unredacted form was provided. This was three years after the allegations were made, which begs the question, why Smirnov’s claims weren’t verified until after the FD-1023 was made public.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer blasted the FBI.
“FBI officials and Director Wray refused to release the [FD-1023] form publicly because they claimed it would jeopardize the safety of a confidential human source who they claimed was invaluable to the FBI,” Comer said. “When asked by the committee about their confidence in the confidential human source, the FBI told the committee the confidential human source was credible and trusted, had worked with the FBI for over a decade, and had been paid six figures.”
He continued, “The FBI’s actions in this matter are very concerning. The FBI had this form for years and it appears they did nothing to verify the troubling claims contained within the record until Congress became aware of and demanded access to them.”
There’s another curiosity. While the FBI sat on the allegations, Smirnov’s claims were investigated. Former U.S. Attorney Scott Brady was tasked with assessing the allegations in the 1023 form and found them credible.
Brady explained his findings in an interview with Just the News and revealed that he and his team had corroborated enough of Smirnov’s claims to merit further investigation and that he encountered unprecedented foot-dragging and “reluctance” from both the FBI and the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office that would take over the case.
“What we were able to identify, we found that it was consistent. And so we felt that there were sufficient indicia of credibility in this 1023 to pass it on to an office that had a predicated grand jury investigation,” Brady told Just the News. “We gave a substantive briefing with the information (to Weiss’ office), including the 1023 that we thought would be of interest to them or that they should investigate further, and made other recommendations about possible investigative avenues that we would recommend that they take.”
From where I sit, it’s hard to believe that Brady’s investigation was able to corroborate Smirnov’s claims, yet, the reluctant FBI and Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office weren’t. Did Smirnov lie? It’s possible. I certainly don’t discount the possibility. But if Smirnov didn’t have contact with the Burisma CEO until 2017, after Biden was out of office, Brady’s investigation should have been able to uncover that.
PJ Media will continue to look into this new development. Did Smirnov legitimately lie, or was there an effort by the Biden administration to undermine the case against the Bidens? As we get closer to the presidential election, our efforts will inevitably be censored and suppressed. Thanks to our VIP members’ support, we’re able to stay online and continue to bring you the unvarnished truth.
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