Trial of ex-FBI whistleblower charged with lying about Biden’s delayed amid new tax evasion charges

A California man who prosecutors alleged lied to federal agents and made false criminal charges against President Biden and his son Hunter is now facing new charges of tax evasion from special counsel David Weiss, according to court records.

Alexander Smirnov was an FBI informant for about a decade, providing information to federal investigators in what his defense attorneys argued in court filings showed an “undivided, years-long loyalty to the United States.”

But Weiss — the Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. attorney who was retained during the Biden administration and later elevated to the role of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland to continue the Hunter Biden investigations — alleged in a February 2024 indictment that Smirnov illegally made false allegations to FBI agents about Hunter and Mr. Biden, dating back to 2020.

Smirnov was accused of lying to investigators when he told them the two Bidens had each accepted $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The allegations “were false as the defendant knew,” according to the charging documents against him.

Smirnov, who court documents say was born in Ukraine, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and in court filings, his defense team has accused prosecutors of charging their client “as a result of the rejection of Hunter Biden’s plea decisions.” He remains in custody pending trial.

On Nov. 21, just weeks before he was due to stand trial on Dec. 3, federal prosecutors in Weiss’ office filed a little-noticed indictment in a separate case against Smirnov alleging that he illegally concealed from the IRS millions of dollars. in income between 2020 and 2022.

Court records alleged that Smirnov spent unreported income on a Las Vegas apartment, a Bentley and payments on credit card debt. Prosecutors did not name the alleged source of the funds, but the dates and amounts of his payments to him from a single company identified in their filing as “Company 1” coincide with payments they alleged Smirnov received from Economic Transformation Technologies Corporation, which was named in court records filed in Smirnov’s other case. The new charges do not indicate any wrongdoing by Economic Transformation Technologies Corporation. Other income came from an unnamed person, the new indictment states.

“To conceal the millions of dollars he received in income in 2020, 2021 and 2022, Defendant created and filed false Forms 1040, US Individual Income Tax Returns, for himself and in the Domestic Partner’s name that included false and fictitious income and expenses.” said the 27-page indictment filed last week.

According to newly released court records, the judge overseeing Weiss’ first case against Smirnov — District Judge Otis Wright — held a status conference Tuesday and delayed his upcoming trial on the false statement charges until January.

In response to the new tax charges, David Chesnoff, Smirnov’s attorney, told CBS News, “Mr. Smirnov intends to defend this case vigorously as he vigorously defended the first case.”

A spokesman for Weiss declined to comment when contacted by CBS News.

Prosecutors alleged earlier this year that Smirnov’s false allegations against the Bidens were memorialized in an FBI document known as an FD 1023. Congressional Republicans previously pointed to that document’s bribery allegations as evidence of wrongdoing and fought with the FBI to publicly release the document, which Investigators now say they contained false claims.

Smirnov’s lawyers have argued in court records that the case “reeks of political bias.” But prosecutors backtracked, writing this month that Smirnov “has never provided any discovery to the government or evidence to this court that supports his baseless allegations — indeed, there is no such evidence because the allegations are meritless.”

In court records filed earlier this year, the special counsel said Smirnov told the FBI about contacts with foreign intelligence officials, “including Russian intelligence services, and has had such contacts recently.” Defense attorneys in their own court documents called allegations of Russian ties baseless.

Aside from the specific charges at issue, law enforcement experts told CBS News earlier this year that the growing questions about Smirnov’s veracity should prompt a review of every case in which he was involved. ONE CBS News investigation published earlier this year revealed that serious doubts about Smirnov’s credibility were raised almost a decade ago.

The FBI declined to comment on the results of the CBS News investigation earlier this year.

Weiss secured a conviction against Hunter Biden in Delaware on illegal weapons charges and a guilty plea from the president’s son in another California case in which Hunter Biden admitted to tax fraud. He is due to be sentenced in both cases later this month.

The trial and guilty plea were the result of a protracted legal battle between Weiss’ office and Hunter Biden’s legal team after an initial plea and diversion agreement fell apart and was ultimately rejected by a federal judge in 2023.

The special counsel has faced criticism from members of Congress and whistleblowers over his handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.

Jessica Kegu and Pat Milton contributed to this report.