Current:Home > MarketsHunter Biden’s lawyers suggest his case is tainted by claims of ex-FBI informant charged with lying -Momentum Wealth Path
Hunter Biden’s lawyers suggest his case is tainted by claims of ex-FBI informant charged with lying
View
Date:2025-04-15 03:47:21
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden ’s lawyers suggested Tuesday that claims made by a former FBI informant charged with fabricating a bribery scheme involving the presidential family may have tainted the case against the president’s son.
The gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden are separate from the claims made by the informant, Alexander Smirnov, who has been charged with making up a bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son and a Ukrainian energy company.
But Hunter Biden’s attorneys say the chatter over the informant contributed to the collapse of the plea deal offered to Hunter Biden last summer.
The filing comes as Hunter Biden continues his public offensive over claims about his professional life and drug use that have been central to congressional investigations and an impeachment inquiry that seeks to tie his business dealings to his father.
The president’s son is charged with lying on a form about his drug use to buy a gun in 2018. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers say one photo that prosecutors used as evidence of cocaine use was actually a photo of sawdust sent by his therapist to encourage him to stay clean.
The Justice Department special counsel overseeing the case against him also filed the charges against Smirnov last week. He is accused of falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016.
But before that case was filed, the prosecution followed the informant “down his rabbit hole of lies,” defense attorneys said in court documents. The special counsel’s office started investigating Smirnov’s claims three years after he originally reported them to his handler, in July 2023. The plea deal imploded around the same time, after prosecutors indicated that an investigation into bribery allegations remained open, defense attorneys said in court documents.
A spokesperson for special counsel David Weiss declined to comment. Prosecutors have previously said that the evidence against Hunter Biden is “overwhelming,” including cocaine residue found on the pouch used to hold his gun, and rejected the defense contention that the charges were politically motivated.
Hunter Biden is also charged in Los Angeles, accused of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while living an “extravagant lifestyle.” Both cases stem from the time when he acknowledged being addicted to drugs.
The cases were filed by special counsel David Weiss, who also charged Smirnov with lying to the FBI in an indictment filed last week. Smirnov’s defense attorneys are pressing for his release from custody.
The charges against Hunter Biden were filed after the collapse of a plea deal that would have avoided the possibility of a trial while his father is campaigning for another term as president. The deal imploded, though, during a hearing in July, around the same time prosecutors from the special counsel’s office started looking into the informant’s claims at the request of the FBI, according to court documents.
___
Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
veryGood! (7919)
Related
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- Why Taylor Swift's Music Is Temporarily Banned From Philadelphia Radio Station
- Colman Domingo’s time is now
- Companies are stealthily cutting benefits to afford higher wages. What employees should know
- Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
- Remains found in Arizona desert in 1992 identified as missing girl; police investigate possible link to serial killer
- Kansas keeps lead, Gonzaga enters top 10 of USA TODAY Sports men's college basketball poll
- Appeals court to consider Trump's bid to pause gag order in special counsel's election interference case
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- TGL pushes start date to 2025 due to recent stadium issue
Ranking
- House passes bill to add 66 new federal judgeships, but prospects murky after Biden veto threat
- Mississippi man killed by police SUV receives funeral months after first burial in paupers’ cemetery
- Zach Edey, Braden Smith lead Purdue men's basketball to Maui Invitational win over Gonzaga
- 49ers lose All-Pro safety Talanoa Hufanga for season due to torn ACL
- Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
- Biden plans to deploy immigration officers to Panama to help screen and deport U.S.-bound migrants, officials say
- Get headaches from drinking red wine? New research explores why.
- What’s open and closed on Thanksgiving this year?
Recommendation
'Survivor' 47 finale, part one recap: 2 players were sent home. Who's left in the game?
3 teen girls plead guilty, get 20 years in carjacking, dragging death of 73-year-old woman
Attentive Energy investing $10.6M in supply chain, startups to help New Jersey offshore wind
Julianna Margulies: My non-Jewish friends, your silence on antisemitism is loud
Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
Deep sea explorer Don Walsh, part of 2-man crew to first reach deepest point of ocean, dies at 92
Man linked to Arizona teen Alicia Navarro pleads not guilty to possessing child sexual abuse images
'Most sought-after Scotch whisky' sells for record $2.7M at London auction