DAILY CALLER
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) indictment of a FBI informant who shared information about an alleged bribery scheme involving Hunter Biden, Joe Biden and a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma raises more questions than it answers.
Alexander Smirnov, the confidential human source (CHS) who alleged in 2020 that Burisma executives paid then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each to protect the company’s interests with their political influence, allegedly lied to FBI agents, according to the Thursday indictment unsealed by special counsel David Weiss and his team. Whether or not Smirnov lied to the FBI, as the DOJ alleges, the indictment’s timing and its allegations that Smirnov was not a credible CHS after all raise questions about how federal investigators have handled the information he provided.
The indictment asserts that Smirnov only made contact with Burisma executives in 2017, after Biden’s stint as vice president concluded and after the Ukrainian investigator probing Burisma had lost his job, according to its text. Provided this is the case, it would not have been possible for Smirnov to have discussed the Bidens with Burisma executives in 2015 and 2016, as he told the FBI he did in June 2020.
The FBI recorded the claims Smirnov made in 2020 in a FD-1023 form, which is a document that FBI agents put together to summarize information provided by a CHS. A FD-1023 form does not make judgement as to whether or not the information provided is accurate; it simply serves as a synopsis of an informant’s claims, according to the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.
Attorney For Ex-Biden Associate Accuses Democrats Of 'Disingenuous Mischaracterizations' To Defend Hunterhttps://t.co/XcZ5LfOjiu
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 15, 2024
Why did Weiss not conduct interviews until after Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley released the FD-1023?
The FD-1023 only entered the public domain after whistleblowers gave it to Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who then released it to the public on July 20, 2023. FBI agents did not conduct an interview with Smirnov’s handler for more than a month after that date, according to The Federalist.
The FBI also did not interview Smirnov about the FD-1023 until September 27, 2023, according to the indictment. Before whistleblowers leaked the FD-1023 to Grassley, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had accused the FBI of stonewalling efforts to obtain the file.
“The Justice Department and lots of folks on Capitol Hill ran wild with similarly explosive claims from ‘trusted’ FBI source Christopher Steele in 2016. So, the lack of curiosity about Smirnov’s claims, which stayed hidden and virtually ignored in the FBI’s files until whistleblowers alerted Congress, is quite a contrast,” Jason Stanley, the founder of Empower Oversight and former chief investigative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If the FBI and the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s had been doing their jobs, Smirnov would have been re-interviewed and his claims scrutinized much earlier.”
Weiss was the U.S. attorney for Delaware before becoming special counsel. Former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady told the House Judiciary Committee in October 2023 that then-U.S. Attorney Weiss was aware of the nature of the allegations contained
