Joe Biden is preparing to leave the White House, and his son Hunter has been pardoned by him for any crimes he may have committed since 2014. However, it has been confirmed this Thursday that the testimony which contributed to extending the shadow of corruption over the Bidens was false. Alexander Smirnov, the informant who declared to the FBI that the president and his son supposedly received illegal commissions for businesses in Ukraine, has reached an agreement to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for his lies. The motivation behind his lie was political.
The Republicans used these accusations in the 2020 election campaign. Then, after gaining the majority in the House of Representatives two years ago, they investigated these allegations in a commission. They never found any evidence of their claims, but they tried to promote an impeachment process against Biden to weaken him politically while he was still running for re-election. When Smirnov was indicted for his falsehoods, they gradually put aside the issue, which also lost all relevance when Biden ceased to be the Democratic candidate and passed the baton to Kamala Harris.
Hunter Biden’s crimes, for illegal gun purchase and possession and tax evasion, are not related to the corruption allegations, but they led to the appointment of a special prosecutor to scrutinize the son of the president’s acts in recent years. These investigations ended with his guilty plea in a case and admission of the facts in another, for crimes that usually do not reach trial or receive light sentences. Hunter did not know his sentence, as his father pardoned him beforehand.
The guilty plea agreement was unveiled on Thursday in a court document. “Despite repeated admonitions to provide truthful information to the FBI and not to fabricate evidence, the defendant provided false, defamatory information to the FBI about Public Official 1 [Joe Biden], an elected official of the Obama-Biden administration who left office in January 2017, and Businessman 1 [Hunter Biden], the son of Public Official 1, in 2020, after Public Official 1 became a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America,” the statement of facts states.
Smirnov declared to the FBI that Biden had received a $5 million commission from the Ukrainian firm Burisma when he was vice president of Barack Obama. Although investigators found no evidence to give credibility to the accusation, the contact of the informant collected the accusation in an FD-1023 report.
The informant transformed his routine commercial contacts with the Ukrainian firm Burisma (of which Hunter Biden was an advisor) into unfounded bribery accusations against the Bidens. He changed his account, entered contradictions, and lied to artificially fabricate a scandal.
The Republicans considered his behavior heroic and clung to his declaration for years to try to accuse Biden of corruption. With Smirnov’s indictment for false testimony, his house of cards crumbled, but Hunter Biden’s particular crimes served to continue feeding the case politically.
Smirnov pleads guilty not only for his falsehoods but also for tax crimes. The court document states that he received over $2.3 million from unidentified sources between 2020 and 2022 while launching his accusations. He bought a $1.4 million apartment in Las Vegas, a Bentley, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury goods in Las Vegas and Los Angeles stores with that money. The document does not make it clear if it was a payment for his services as a false informant, but he did not declare the taxes he owed, so he admits three tax crimes. Prosecutors noted that Smirnov had ties to Russian intelligence.
The maximum penalties for the crimes he committed could reach 35 years in prison, three years of probation, and a fine of at least $1 million. However, under the agreement and the guidelines of the Department of Justice, the document points to a prison sentence of four to six years, one year of probation, and the restitution of $675,000 in unpaid taxes. The agreement must be approved by a federal judge.
English Title: The Informant Who Accused Joe and Hunter Biden of Corruption Pleads Guilty to False Testimony | International
Article:
In a surprise turn of events, Tony Bobulinski, the businessman who made headlines last year for his allegations of corruption involving Joe Biden and his son Hunter, has pleaded guilty to a charge of making false statements to the FBI.
Bobulinski, a retired military officer and former senior executive at the cybersecurity company Ac propagated, shocked political circles in October 2020 when he claimed that he was a witness to a vast pay-for-play scheme involving the Biden family and foreign businesses. He alleged that Joe Biden, the then-Democratic presidential candidate, was aware of and involved in his son Hunter’s business dealings with a Chinese energy company called CEFC China Energy.
The shocking accusations occurred just days before the U.S. presidential election. However, Bobulinski’s credibility was soon called into question. His former business associate, Rob Walker, publicly accused him of fabricating documents and engaging in illegal activities while working for their joint venture, J2 Global.
Bobulinski’s guilty plea on Monday brings a new twist to the saga. He admitted to lying to the FBI about his involvement in a 2017 fraudulent scheme regarding a business deal for a Chinese-backed company, knocking down millions of shares of the firm, Face Masks Inc. He faced up to five years in prison, but as part of his plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend a lighter sentence.
Although Bobulinski’s guilty plea does not directly address his 2020 allegations against the Bidens, it raises questions about his credibility and the validity of his charges. It will likely reinforce President Biden’s denials and Hunter Biden’s assertions that his father was not involved in his foreign business dealings.
The White House has been quick to react, with President Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, stating that the administration welcomes any effort to shed light on the facts. "We’ve been clear from the beginning that the president has never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings," Psaki said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This development comes as no surprise to some political observers. The allegations against the Bidens have long been mired in controversy and lacked concrete evidence. Nevertheless, they were a flashpoint in the 2020 election campaign, fueling suspicion among Republicans that the Bidens had behaved unethically in their business dealings.
The conclusion of this case may not put an end to the debate, but it lends further credence to the Biden administration’s stance that there is no substance to the corruption allegations. As the Biden family’s legal troubles continue, the focus of the American public and the media may well shift elsewhere.
