Trump's Legacy

Grand Jury Indictment of Alexander Smirnov for False Statements

Source: Justice.gov
Type: government-filing

Source Text

Excerpt only. The full text is too long to reproduce here:

The Grand Jury charges:

INTRODUCTORY ALLEGATIONS

  1. Defendant ALEXANDER SMIRNOV was a resident of Los Angeles, California in 2020.
    A. The Defendant was an FBI Confidential Human Source.

  2. The Defendant was a confidential human source (“CHS”) with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”). As a CHS, the Defendant was assigned a handling agent (hereafter “the Handler”) who was a special agent on an FBI squad that investigated violations of federal criminal law.

  3. As a CHS, the Defendant provided information to the Handler that was then used in various criminal investigations conducted by the FBI. The Defendant knew that information he provided was used in criminal investigations because, among other reasons, the Handler advised him that he might have to testify in court based on the information he provided on multiple occasions, including, but not limited to: 10/1/2010, 5/17/2011, 11/28/2012, 04/12/2013, 8/29/2013, 7/10/2015 and 3/11/2020. The Defendant also knew the information he provided was used in criminal investigations because the Defendant participated in a number of operations where he was authorized to engage in criminal activity as part of an on-going criminal investigation.

  4. The Defendant was admonished by the Handler that he must provide truthful information to the FBI when he first became a CHS in 2010 and on multiple occasions thereafter, including, but not limited to: 10/1/2010, 1/20/2011, 5/17/2011, 9/14/2011, 8/29/2012, 11/28/2012, 4/12/2013, 8/29/2013, 1/22/2014, 7/9/2014, 7/10/2015, 9/29/2016, 9/26/2017, 9/26/2018, 9/27/2019, 3/11/2020, 2/19/2021, 10/28/2021, 10/17/2022 and 9/29/2023.

  5. In addition, when the Defendant was authorized to engage in illegal activity for investigative purposes, he was further admonished that: “Under no circumstances may the CHS … Participate in an act that constitutes obstruction of justice (e.g., perjury, witness tampering, witness intimidation, entrapment, or fabrication, alteration, or destruction of evidence, unless such illegal activity has been authorized).” When the Defendant was given this admonishment, he signed an FBI form that contained this statement, including on 10/8/2014, 1/18/2017, 10/8/2018, 1/10/2019, and 8/7/2020.

  6. Despite repeated admonishments that he must provide truthful information to the FBI and that he must not fabricate evidence, the Defendant provided false derogatory information to the FBI about Public Official 1, an elected official in the Obama-Biden Administration who left office in January 2017, and Businessperson 1, the son of Public Official 1, in 2020, after Public Official 1 became a candidate for President of the United States of America.
    a. As described in greater detail below, in March 2017, the Defendant reported to the Handler that he had had a phone call with the owner of Ukrainian industrial conglomerate Burisma Holdings, Limited (hereafter “Burisma Official 1”) concerning Burisma’s interest in acquiring a U.S. company and making an initial public offering (“IPO”) on a U.S.-based stock exchange. In reporting that conversation to the Handler, the Defendant also noted that Businessperson 1, Public Official 1’s son, was a member of Burisma’s Board, a fact that was publicly known.
    b. Three years later, in June 2020, the Defendant reported, for the first time, two meetings in 2015 and/or 2016, during the ObamaBiden Administration, in which he claimed executives associated with Burisma, including Burisma Official 1, admitted to him that they hired Businessperson 1 to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” and later that they had specifically paid $5 million each to Public Official 1 and Businessperson 1, when Public Official 1 was still in office, so that “[Businessperson 1] will take care of all those issues through his dad,” referring to a criminal investigation being conducted by the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General into Burisma and to “deal with [the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General].”
    c. The Defendant also reported two purported phone calls between himself and Burisma Official 1 wherein Burisma Official 1 stated that he had been forced to pay Public Official 1 and Businessperson 1 and that it would take investigators 10 years to find records of illicit payments to Public Official 1.
    d. As alleged herein, the events the Defendant first reported to the Handler in June 2020 were fabrications. In truth and fact, the Defendant had contact with executives from Burisma in 2017, after the end of the Obama-Biden Administration and after the thenUkrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016, in other words, when Public Official 1 had no ability to influence U.S. policy and when the Prosecutor General was no longer in office. 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.
    e. When he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023, the Defendant repeated some of his false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.

B. In 2017, the Defendant provided the FBI Handler with information that Burisma was interested in acquiring an American oil and gas company.
7. On or about March 1, 2017, the Defendant provided information to the Handler concerning Burisma for the first time. That information was memorialized in an official record of the FBI on a Form 1023 (hereafter the “2017 1023”). The following is the entirety of what the Defendant told the Handler in March 2017 that was memorialized in the 2017 1023:
During the week of 2/27/2017, CHS received a telephone call from [Associate 1] (a subject of prior CHS reporting regarding ties to ROC). Also on the call was [Burisma Official 1], whom CHS understood is the “CEO or owner” of Burisma Holdings - Ukraine. During the call, [Associate 1] mentioned they are interested in acquiring a U.S.-based petroleum business with a market capitalization between 50- 100 million. They would then use this US-based entity as the parent company for Burisma Holdings (or a subdivision thereof), which they would then seek to register on a US exchange.

     This CEO and [Associate 1] made statements that led CHS to believe that Burisma Holdings has overstated its corporate assets in various public filings in Ukraine (NFI).
     
     The individual in Ukraine who is currently assigned to manage this acquisition is [Burisma Official 2], whose title is “Board Advisor - Director for International Cooperation and Strategic Development”, email [] @burisma.com, 10-A Ryleyeva Str., Kyiv 04073, Ukraine, office phone [], fax: []. During the week of March 6, 2017, [Burisma Official 2] plans to travel to Washington D.C. (NFI), and may meet with the CHS sometime thereafter on the West Coast.
     
     During this call, there was a brief, non-relevant discussion about [Public Official 1]'s son, [Businessperson 1], who is currently on the Board of Directors for Burisma Holdings [No Further Information].

(emphasis added). Notably, the Defendant did not report in 2017 that in the preceding two years, Burisma Official 1 admitted to the Defendant that he had paid Public Official 1 $5 million when Public Official 1 was still in office, as the Defendant later claimed.

C. Three years later, in May 2020, the Defendant sent the Handler a series of messages expressing bias against Public Official 1, who was then a candidate for President of the United States of America and the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties.
8. On May 19, 2020, the Defendant messaged the Handler the following:
-It’s all over the news in Russia and Ukraine as well as live calls between (PUBLIC OFFICIAL 1) and (PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE)
-Smells bad for (PUBLIC OFFICIAL 1)
9. On that day, May 19, 2020, it was publicly reported that:
A Ukrainian lawmaker who met with [] late last year released recordings of private phone calls several years ago between [Public Official 1] and [], then Ukraine’s president, in a new broadside against the presumptive [] nominee for U.S. president that has raised questions about foreign interference in the 2020 election.

Events Citing This Source

EventDateCategory
Smirnov Fabricated FBI Intelligence2020, ongoingErosion of Democratic Norms

People Mentioned

PersonRole

Institutions Mentioned

InstitutionDescription
SourceTypePublisher
Ex-FBI informant accused of lying about Bidens pleads guiltynews-reportingReuters
Grand Jury Returns Indictment Charging FBI Confidential Human Source with Felony False Statement and Obstruction Crimesgovernment-filingJustice.gov

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