FBI informant arrested again as prosecutors warn he’ll try to flee US

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. However, a Thursday order from the Central District Court of California wrote that Smirnov’s attorney “sought an emergency hearing in the District of Nevada to arrange the release of Defendant Smirnov, likely to facilitate his absconding from the United States.” On Friday, in a statement attorneys for Smirnov did not remark on this assertion, but said: “We are advocating for Mr. Smirnov's release in both the federal district court and in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury, states Mr Smirnov allegedly “provided false derogatory information” to agents about President Biden and Hunter Biden. Mr Smirnov allegedly told agents that “executives associated with Burisma, including Burisma Official 1, admitted to him that they hired to ‘protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems”. In a statement given toThe Independent, attorneys for Mr Smirnov said that their client “was rearrested on an arrest warrant issued from the same Court where he was planning on voluntarily appearing when required.” “He had previously been released by a federal Magistrate Judge after a full and complete hearing where both sides were heard.