US pushes to release informant who fabricated Biden bribery claims

FILE – Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, left, walks out of his lawyer’s office in downtown Las Vegas after being released from federal custody on Feb. 20, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

The US government wants a former FBI informant who fabricated a story about former president Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes to be released from prison while he appeals his conviction, it was revealed on Thursday in court records.

Alexander Smirnov, 44, was sentenced to six years in prison in early January after pleading guilty in Los Angeles federal court to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme, which was described by prosecutors at the time as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.