Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, talks to reporters on the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2023. An FBI informant has been charged with mendacity to his handler about ties between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian power firm.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

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Jose Luis Magana/AP

Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, talks to reporters on the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2023. An FBI informant has been charged with mendacity to his handler about ties between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian power firm.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

WASHINGTON — An FBI informant has been charged with mendacity to his handler about ties between President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian power firm.

Alexander Smirnov falsely advised FBI brokers in June 2020 that executives related to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million every in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors stated Thursday.

Smirnov advised the FBI {that a} Burisma govt had claimed to have employed Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” prosecutors stated.

The allegations turned a flashpoint in Congress final summer season as Republicans demanded the FBI launch the unredacted type documenting the allegations as they pursued investigations of Biden and his household. They acknowledged on the time that it was unclear if the allegations had been true.

Prosecutors say that although Smirnov claimed to have had contact with Burisma executives close to the top of the Obama administration, it really happened after Obama and Biden had left workplace — when Biden would have had no capacity to affect U.S. coverage.

“In short, the Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy,” the indictment stated.

He repeated among the false claims when he was interviewed by FBI brokers in September 2023 and altered his story about others and “promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,” prosecutors stated.

Smirnov, 43, was indicted on fees of constructing a false assertion and making a false and fictitious report. No legal professional was instantly listed for him in courtroom data. He was anticipated to make a primary courtroom look in Las Vegas, the place he was arrested Wednesday after arriving from abroad, prosecutors stated.

If convicted, he faces a most penalty of 25 years in jail.

The fees had been filed by Justice Department special counsel David Wiess, who has individually charged Hunter Biden with firearm and tax violations.