The U.S. special counsel leading a criminal probe into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, said a former FBI informant was charged with lying about the pair’s alleged involvement in business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
In a statement on Thursday, Special Counsel David Weiss, opens new tab said a federal grand jury had indicted Alexander Smirnov, 43, on charges of making a “false statement” and “creating a false and fictitious record” in relation to an FBI probe. Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted.
Burisma and Hunter Biden’s role at the company have been heavily scrutinized, opens new tab following unproven claims from Republican former President Donald Trump and others that Democrat Joe Biden improperly tried to help his son’s business interests in Ukraine. The White House has denied the claims.
Smirnov was arrested on Wednesday at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, after his arrival in the U.S. from overseas, Weiss said.
It was not immediately clear whether Smirnov had an attorney.
The indictment unsealed on Thursday appeared to deal a blow to the Republican accusations that the U.S. president profited from his son’s business in Ukraine.
“For months we have warned that Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts,” Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “We were right and the air is out of their balloon.”
In December, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted to formally authorize, opens new tab an ongoing impeachment inquiry into the U.S. president. Some Republicans at the time referenced Hunter Biden’s prior role at Burisma to say they were “mighty suspicious of folks from the president’s family making tens of millions of dollars in professions in which they had no experience.”