Ex-FBI Informant Championed By NY Post’s Miranda Devine Pleads Guilty to Lying About Bidens
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of accepting bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch, has agreed to plead guilty to multiple federal charges, according to court filings.
In the plea deal, Smirnov, a self-styled consultant based in Las Vegas, will admit to charges of fabricating evidence, obstructing justice, and evading taxes on $2.1 million in income between 2020 and 2022. The agreement with Special Counsel David C. Weiss could result in a prison term of 48 to 72 months, pending approval by a federal judge in California as early as Monday. Smirnov is also required to pay $675,502 in restitution.
The charges stem from Smirnov’s false claims in 2020 that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, paid $5 million bribes to both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. Prosecutors assert that the lie, shared with his FBI handlers, was politically motivated. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Smirnov sent text messages to agents expressing bias against then-candidate Biden, boasting of information that could “put him in jail.”
Republican lawmakers and right-wing media amplified Smirnov’s unverified allegations during impeachment discussions against Biden. The New York Times reported Friday that many of those same voices have since refrained from commenting on Smirnov’s indictment.
One person who hasn’t held back is New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, whose book The Big Guy focused on the Biden family’s business dealings and who blasted the case against Smirnov in a November column as a “politically motivated persecution” aimed at silencing him. At one point, in February, Devine even ventured that Smirnov might even be “Epstein’d” in prison, if he couldn’t be made “to keep his mouth shut” — lest he use the trial to give evidence against Biden.
On Thursday, Devine commented on X that Smirnov’s guilty plea “seems bogus.” She surmised that prosecutors had “bullied” Smirnov into a plea bargain with tax charges to avoid him going to trial. She added that Smirnov must have “felt he had no choice.”
Prosecutors, however, contend that Smirnov’s actions were part of a broader pattern of deceit. Described in court filings as a “hall-of-mirrors fabulist,” Smirnov not only fabricated claims against the Bidens but also misled investigators about his personal wealth, which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Court records reveal extravagant spending, including $1.4 million on a Las Vegas condominium and $122,000 on a Bentley.
Smirnov was born in the former Soviet Union and became a U.S. citizen in 2015.
