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A former FBI informant who was arrested last week on charges of lying to the bureau about the Bidens’ alleged business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company, was re-arrested Thursday after a judge deemed him a flight risk.
Alexander Smirnov, 43, was released by a Nevada judge earlier this week. A California judge ordered him arrested again on Thursday after federal prosecutors argued Smirnov, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, was a flight risk.
Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, center, leaves the courthouse in Las Vegas on Tuesday. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
The informant, Alexander Smirnov, is "actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections," federal prosecutors said Wednesday, as they appealed to a judge to keep him behind bars ahead of trial on charges alleging he lied to the FBI about a phony multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the Bidens and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
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The latest charges were filed in Los Angeles, meaning if his case goes to trial, that's where the case will be.
Several sealed entries were listed in the court docket, but no additional details about his return to custody were immediately available.
Smirnov is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.
Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, departs a House Oversight Committee meeting at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
According to attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, Smirnov was arrested Thursday morning at their law offices in downtown Las Vegas on the same charges. The lawyers did not immediately respond to phone and text message requests for further comment.
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Prosecutors say Smirnov falsely told his handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015. The claim became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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