A former FBI informant who is being prosecuted for lying and fabricating corruption charges against Joe Biden and his son has confessed to investigators that he received information from people connected to Russian intelligence, US prosecutors said Tuesday. , who called this information “false”.

Alexander Smirnoff, 43, an Israeli-American former FBI informant who was arrested last Thursday in Las Vegas, is suspected of lying when he accused the US president and his son, Hunter Biden, of receiving $5 million each from each in bribery to allow a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, to escape prosecution.

But according to U.S. Attorney David Weiss and other judges, “the misinformation he (Smirnoff) is spreading is not limited to 2020. It includes new lies that could have an impact on the (2024) US election, following a meeting in November with officials of the Russian intelligence services.

“During his custodial interrogation on February 14, Smirnoff admitted that officials connected to Russian intelligence were involved in distributing a story” about Hunter Biden, prosecutors added in a court document filed in a Nevada court.

The right accuses Joe Biden, so far without evidence, of using his influence as Barack Obama’s vice president (2009-2017) to allow his son, Hunter, to do shady business in Ukraine and China.

Smirnoff’s narrative had leaked into the public sphere and had become central to fueling these suspicions. But this is a fabricated story, the judges reiterated yesterday, Tuesday, according to which the consequences of these false accusations “are still being felt today”.

The indictment of Smirnoff for providing false information to the FBI about Joe and Hunter Biden is a blow to the investigation being conducted by congressional Republicans against the US president months before a possible new duel between the Democratic incumbent and Donald Trump for the White House.

A businessman who now dabbles in painting, Hunter Biden is a target of Republicans in the United States, who are fueling suspicions about his business dealings in Ukraine and China during the Obama presidency.

But the ongoing judicial investigation of the president’s son has so far not allowed these accusations to be substantiated.