CNN
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The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of accepting a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison , according to court records.
The former informant, Alexander Smirnov, who has dual American-Israeli nationality, has been in prison since his arrest last February.
The sentencing in Los Angeles ends one of the last vestiges of special counsel David Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden and related matters. The only item on the agenda that appears uncertain is Weiss’ final report, which under federal regulations will be submitted to the attorney general, who may then make it public.
at Smirnov explosive indictment – and the rest public repudiation of his false corruption allegations — helped derail the Republican impeachment campaign against Biden. Prosecutors imposed additional tax charges on Smirnov in November, and as a trial nears, he pleaded guilty last month for causing the creation of a false FBI file, as well as three counts of tax evasion.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to ask the judge for a maximum prison sentence of six years, and Smirnov’s team agreed to ask for at least four years. Smirnov also agreed to pay approximately $675,000 in restitution to the IRS to compensate for his tax evasion.
In court filings, prosecutors argued for a six-year prison sentence, calling Smirnov a “liar and tax evader” who “betrayed the United States.” Prosecutors said his baseless corruption allegations against the Bidens were “among the most serious types of election interference imaginable” as they disrupted the 2020 and 2024 election cycles.
Smirnov’s lawyers requested a four-year prison sentence. In court filings, they said he had no criminal record, suffered from severe glaucoma in both eyes and “his remorse was sincere.” They submitted letters from relatives, who praised Smirnov as a “deeply patriotic and proud American” who “did everything for his friends and family” and “always stood up for justice.”
Born in the Soviet Union, Smirnov and his family immigrated to Israel when he was a child, then moved to the United States. He became a naturalized citizen and valuable informant for the FBI. But according to prosecutors, he then began expressing bias in favor of Biden and made up the Corruption story in Ukraine to damage Biden’s 2020 campaign against Trump.
The Department of Justice secretly probed Smirnov’s allegations in 2020, but nothing came of it. Three years later, as the 2024 campaign approaches, congressional Republicans attracted national attention to Smirnov’s unproven allegations, and touted his track record as an FBI informant. Their demands quickly went viral in the right-wing media ecosystem.
Amid this GOP scrutiny, Weiss’s team re-interviewed Smirnov in 2023 to fact-check his claims, as they also investigated Hunter Biden. But Weiss concluded that Smirnov “was lying” and “should be prosecuted himself” for repeatedly misleading the FBI, prosecutors said in their filings.
Weiss indicted Hunter Biden on tax and gun-related charges. He was convicted by jury last year, three gun crimes, and later pleaded guilty to nine federal tax violations. President Biden granted his son a unconditional grace in December, before sentencing in both cases.