Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov was arrested again in Nevada on Thursday, two days after a federal judge released him from custody on charges of telling the FBI lies about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
The disgraced ex-informant had been a key witness for congressional Republicans bent on impeaching the president — an inquiry that now lies in tatters.
Smirnov was re-arrested during a morning meeting in Las Vegas with his lawyers, who swiftly filed an emergency motion for his release.
The attorneys say the re-arrest was unwarranted given that law enforcement was not serving a different warrant; they say their client was taken into custody on the exact charges as on Feb. 14.
Following a hearing on Tuesday, a federal judge agreed to release Smirnov from custody on certain conditions — such as GPS monitoring — and he was set free. His attorneys say he has not even had a chance to leave the county.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, argue that he is a flight risk.
Smirnov was accused of making a false statement and creating a fictitious record regarding the Biden family’s supposed connections to a Ukrainian energy company. He told the FBI that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden each received $5 million in bribes from the company Burisma around 2015.
His claims about the president’s family allegedly stem from Russian intelligence. Prosecutors allege that Smirnov had extensive contact with Russian officials and had plans to meet with them abroad. In addition, they argued that Smirnov’s roughly $6 million in accessible funds meant he could live comfortably for the rest of his life if he were to flee.
Smirnov has not yet entered a plea.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts ordered Smirnov to surrender the two passports he holds as a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen.
Biden and other Democrats have called for an end to Republicans’ impeachment probe since Smirnov’s initial arrest.
“It appears like the whole thing is not only obviously false and fraudulent,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Wednesday, “but a product of Russian disinformation and propaganda.”