A former FBI informant with ties to Russian intelligence, Alexander Smirnov, is seeking to withdraw his guilty plea and get a new trial after being convicted of lying to the bureau. On September 17, prosecutors will argue that Smirnov should be allowed to do so in a federal courtroom in Pasadena, California. The key issue at stake is whether Smirnov's sentence was reduced properly according to his original plea deal, with the judge denying this claim. This case has drawn attention due to its connections to Russian intelligence and its potential impact on the 2020 and 2024 US elections.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
On September 17, prosecutors from the Justice Department are scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom in Pasadena, California, for a rather odd event.
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prosecutors → schedule → event
They will argue that a mysterious former FBI informant with connections to Russian intelligence—who was convicted of lying to the bureau to spread the false accusation that Joe Biden and his son Hunter each received a $5 million bribe from Ukraine—should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea and get a new trial.
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Biden → argue → trial
That allegation about the Bidens was embraced and weaponized by Donald Trump, right-wing media, and House Republicans, who in 2023 and 2024 cited it as smoking-gun evidence for Biden’s impeachment—until the informant, Alexander Smirnov, a Ukrainian-born Israeli national and businessman who acknowledged he had ties to Russian intelligence, was indicted for lying to the FBI.
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he → embrace → FBI
He pleaded guilty and was subsequently sentenced to six years in prison.
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He → plead → prison
(The punishment also covered failing to pay taxes on more than $2 million in income that was not fully explained.)
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that → cover → income
The Trump Justice Department’s effort to assist Smirnov, a longtime confidential source for the bureau, has been puzzling.
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effort → assist → bureau
In March, I broke the news that the DOJ was helping him get out of prison by supporting his appeal, in which Smirnov is trying to throw out his sentence and withdraw his guilty plea.
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Smirnov → break → plea
The appeal hinges on a technical point: Smirnov, who is represented by an attorney with multiple connections to the Trump administration, claims the federal judge who presided over his trial did not stick to a provision of his plea deal regarding a reduction in his sentence to match his pretrial detention.
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who → hinge → detention
The judge denies this.
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judge → deny → this
What’s highly unusual is that Todd Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, intervened in this case on the side of this Russia-connected fabricator whose lies, according to the federal prosecutors in his case, were concocted to impact the 2020 and 2024 elections—that is, to hurt Biden.
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that → ’ → Biden
Which they did.
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they → do → Which
Smirnov’s false report to the FBI fueled the GOP’s absurd effort to impeach Biden and provided ammo for the ludicrous MAGA mantra that Biden was the head of a crime family.
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Biden → fuel → family
When Smirnov was indicted in early 2024, that impeachment campaign fizzled.
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campaign → indict → 2024
The whole Smirnov episode looked like a Russian covert action waged to hurt the Democrats and aid Trump.
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episode → look → Trump
It was not shocking that Moscow would try to insert a phony allegation of Biden bribery into the American political discourse, given that Vladimir Putin had mounted various clandestine operations to help Trump in 2016 and 2020.
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Putin → try → 2016
But most surprising was that there was no public investigation of the Smirnov caper after it turned out this Russian-linked informant had peddled lies to the FBI.
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informant → be → FBI
(Prosecutors feared he might flee to Israel.)
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he → fear → Israel
Why did his lies to the FBI go undetected for so long?
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lies → go → FBI
How could he fool his bureau handlers for years?
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he → fool → years
In my forthcoming book How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America, which will be published on September 15, I examined these important and unanswered questions about Smirnov.
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I → win → Smirnov
Here’s a brief excerpt:
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excerpt → ’ → ?
Though Smirnov’s criminal case would be resolved, left unanswered was a crucial question: Why did he do this?
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he → resolve → this
Smirnov tried not once but twice to insert into the FBI disinformation that could possibly influence a US election: first, in 2020, with his claim he had been told about a $10 million Biden bribery scheme, and then in 2023, with an allegation that Hunter Biden had been secretly recorded by the Russians.
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Biden → try → Russians
The FBI didn’t bite either time.
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FBI → bite → ?
But Smirnov managed to provide the Republicans with a fabricated charge they weaponized and used for nine months to threaten impeachment and sully Biden’s image.
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they → manage → image
Had the Russians put him up to this?
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Russians → put → this
His false stories aligned with the Biden-Ukraine corruption narrative pushed by Russian intelligence.
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stories → align → intelligence
No inspector general reports on how the FBI had handled him.
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FBI → handle → him
“It was a matter of great curiosity where Smirnov had come from and who he was reporting to,” Representative Jamie Raskin, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, later said.
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Raskin → come → Committee
Within the Biden White House, officials were frustrated that no deeper digging into the Smirnov case occurred.
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digging → frustrate → case
“It was maddening,” recalled Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser.
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Sullivan → recall → ?
“Because it was an FBI investigation, we were walled off from it.
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we → wall → it
Biden was absolutely convinced it was a Russian operation.”
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it → convince → ?
But neither the president nor the American public ever got the full story.
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president → get → story
The White House decided not to raise a fuss about a possible Russian active measure undergirding the GOP’s crusade against Biden.
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House → decide → Biden
His political advisers insisted that it was best not to talk about the Republicans’ impeachment drive.
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it → insist → drive
American voters were not taking it seriously.
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voters → take → it
“The intelligence people were uncomfortable being drawn into this,” Sullivan recounted.
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Sullivan → draw → this
It was hard to dial it up to ten.”
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It → dial → ten
Biden had repeatedly told his aides he believed much of the right-wing attack on him over Ukraine had come straight from Moscow.
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much → tell → Moscow
…and 27 more, not listed.
