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Informants to the FBI provide information concerning criminal activities to the FBI. This is usually in exchange for money, a lighter sentence, or the FBI ignoring their illegal action. Who better than those who work with criminals to reveal their secrets about the FBI informant scandal?
The goal of informants is to destroy a criminal organization from the inside. The FBI’s use of informants is controversial. However, many of the agency’s investigations would not be possible without their participation. Using informants as a source of information for FBI informant scandals is very risky. Not only is it risky, but it has a lot of disadvantages.
One of which is the breaking story of former FBI solid informant Alexander Smirnov. He got exposed and sued for lying against American President Joe Biden. This has caused a huge uproar in Washington and other cities, as everyone is eager to know the truth. On the other hand, Trump’s legal troubles are also troubling, but let’s focus on the news at hand.
What Did Alexander Smirnov Say About Joe Biden?
The FBI first valued Alexander Smirnov as a reliable source. This was because of his connections with corrupt international companies and politicians. This increased when he disclosed that he also had ties to foreign intelligence services.
America is almost always under attack by terrorists and he is one of their long-time informants. Understandably, the FBI will have more interest in the FBI informant scandal. But things didn’t turn out well, as Smirnov told a lie about President Joe Biden and his family.
Alexander Smirnov‘s FBI Informant Scandal
Smirnov made baseless accusations that the Bidens accepted $10 million in bribes. The prosecutor said he did this in exchange for favors to help a Ukrainian energy business called Burisma. The president’s son, Hunter, served as a paid board member.
When asked where he got his information, he said part of it was gotten from Russian intelligence agents. However, according to an insider on the case, the FBI was already having doubts as early as 2020. These doubts were mostly about some of Smirnov’s FBI informant scandals.
This was because Smirnov initially disclosed his interactions with Burisma executives. He did this following the conclusion of the Obama-Biden administration in March 2017. He reported this to his handler when he was speaking with the owner of Burisma. There was a “brief, non-relevant” mention of Hunter Biden.
Smirnov’s Reports on the Scandal
Smirnov’s reports were preserved in an FBI form known as 1023. Agents use it to document informant reporting that hasn’t been independently validated. Fast forward to May 2020, Smirnov texted his FBI handler, telling him that Joe Biden was “going to jail.”
At the time, there were allegations against the Bidens made by prominent Trump supporters and Russian agents. Smirnov informed his handler he would “get those recordings” of Hunter Biden. These were alleged recordings in which Hunter Biden’s father would “take care” of the prosecutor general. But Smirnov never released the evidence supporting his FBI informant scandal claims for months.
Then, in June 2020, Justice Department authorities assigned US Attorney Scott Brady to the case. He was headquartered in Pittsburgh at the time and responsible for reviewing public records. These records “may be relevant to matters relating to Ukraine.”
As part of the review, the Pittsburgh FBI began to inspect the document memorializing Smirnov’s 2017 conversation with Burisma executives. According to the prosecution, this is when Smirnov allegedly revealed the first of the shocking claims about the Bidens.
The 2015 FBI Informant Scandal Report
Smirnov reported to the FBI that in 2015 and 2016, officials at Burisma acknowledged to him that they had paid each of the two Bidens $5 million and that they had recruited Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of issues.”
To verify the accuracy of the information Smirnov gave, the FBI requested he give documentation. According to the prosecution, the DOJ leadership and FBI officials agreed to close their evaluation of Smirnov’s assertions after two months.
And according to the news, Scott Brady affirmed in his unpublicized testimony to the House Judiciary Committee last year that he was, among other things, “able to corroborate certain information that was represented by the CHS and is memorialized in this 1023,” citing particular travel documents that Smirnov had submitted.
The interview transcript also states that Brady briefed Weiss on the 1023 and stated that he thought certain parts of it had “sufficient indicia of credibility.” Brady claimed to have requested that the FBI send the paper to Weiss’s office.
FBI Informant Scandal 2023 Inquiry
It appears that Weiss continued the inquiry until July 2023, at which point his team was contacted by the FBI regarding “allegations related to” Smirnov’s assertions. That is the FBI informant scandal. By then, Republicans had persistently propagated Smirnov’s claim of Biden’s bribery, bringing his allegations—which he had not publicly credited to himself—into the political public eye.
Six years after filing his first complaint, in September, Smirnov was questioned by the FBI once more about his allegations concerning the Bidens. According to the prosecution, when he claimed to have met with Russian officials, he “repeated some false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative.”
Smirnov was taken into custody last week. Although he hasn’t made a formal plea yet, his attorneys have said he is contesting the charges.
How Does the FBI Utilize Informants? What Is Its Policy?
According to the law, using informants by the government is legitimate and frequently necessary for legitimately authorized law enforcement inquiries to be successful. Nevertheless, using informants to help with a criminal investigation may entail some degree of deceit and FBI informant scandal, invasion of personal space, or collaboration with someone whose sincerity and motivations are unclear.
Based on court documents, Smirnov started as an FBI informant in 2010. He gave information to the same handler for almost ten years, and according to court records, their friendship grew to the point where they chatted almost daily.
Smirnov’s handler was aware of his connections to foreign government officials from the beginning of their relationship. There’s no proof he was polygraphed while working as a paid informant. Usually, the agency uses a polygraph as a routine method of source evaluation.
Bureau Report of the FBI Informant Scandal
According to current and former officials, the bureau has been known to forgo employing polygraphs in certain situations of FBI informants where a confidential source is concurrently employed by another US intelligence organization.
This is a complicated story with different variables, plus the prosecutor reports that Smirnov lied because he hates the Biden administration. We cannot say what’s sure until the case is over.