How is an ex-FBI informant charged with lying about Bidens allegedly linked to Russian intelligence?

WASHINGTON — The explosive allegations at the center of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden were false, federal prosecutors said, and came from an ex-FBI informant who said he was in touch with Russian intelligence. The informant, Alexander Smirnov, is “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections,” federal prosecutors said Wednesday, as they appealed to a judge to keep him behind bars ahead of trial on charges alleging he lied to the FBI about a phony multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the Bidens and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov had been an informant since 2010, growing close to an FBI handler he spoke to “nearly every day,” prosecutors said in court documents. U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts in Las Vegas said Tuesday he was concerned about Smirnov’s access to money but that federal guidelines require him to fashion “the least restrictive conditions” ahead of trial. Prosecutors laid out in court documents “extensive and extremely recent,” contact Smirnov said he had with people aligned with Russian intelligence.