Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Cruise ship drags dead whale into New York, prompting investigation

5 big travel lessons from a Patagonia CEO-turned-conservationist

Cruise worker accused of stabbing 3 with scissors arrested in Alaska

Carolyn Hax: In-laws stalk the live stream to check couple’s attendance at church

Miss Manners: Why were other diners laughing at us?

I accidentally befriended my ex-husband’s wife. Give advice to this Hax question.

Apple apologizes for iPad ad after blowback 

Hack targeting hospital chain Ascension is impacting patient care

A college professor wants to use Section 230 against Big Tech

Trump team throws out GOP plan and builds a ‘leaner’ 2024 operation 

Mike Johnson’s telling comment on GOP’s (lack of) voter-fraud evidence 

VA improperly approved nearly $11 million in bonuses for execs, watchdog finds

Find your Westminster show dog name: You may be a CH Lolly’s Marble Tuxedo MX

What actually happens within your lawn when you don’t mow it

Think you want a dog? Take our quiz to find out if you’re ready.

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Checks, not sex, and other takeaways from Trump’s New York hush money trial

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024

China’s latest wellness trend? Marathons. But good luck getting a spot.

China’s Xi wades into Europe’s political divides

Middle East conflict live updates: U.N. says roads ‘jammed’ as over 110,000 flee Rafah; cease-fire talks stall

Are smartphones destroying childhood? It’s complicated.

In the campaign against Donald Trump, do the ends justify the means?

The FTC’s noncompete clause rule goes too far

To get outs with his fastball, Trevor Williams put his ego aside

Nationals finally run out of answers and fall to Orioles in 12 innings

4 best things to do with kids in the D.C. area this weekend

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

Tom Brenner

Special counsel David Weiss — who has previously filed criminal charges against President Biden’s son Hunter — announced new charges Thursday against a former FBI informant who officials say lied about the Bidens’ business dealings.

The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/27aff9f1-37db-4f74-8e19-06c8b7f750c0.pdf" target=_blank>indictment returned by a grand jury in Los Angeles</a> accuses Alexander Smirnov of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. The charges amount to a stark rebuke of conservatives, particularly Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, who touted Smirnov’s claims as he and other Republican lawmakers tried to build a corruption case against the president and his family.

Smirnov, 43, is described in charging documents as a former confidential human source for the FBI who gave agents false information in 2020 about a prominent political figure and his son. The description of the two individuals matches that of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Joe Biden</a> and his son Hunter, and a person familiar with the matter said those are the individuals about whom Smirnov lied. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Smirnov allegedly reported to an FBI agent in 2017 that he had a phone call with the owner of the Ukrainian firm Burisma, in which it was discussed that “Public Official 1’s son, was a member of Burisma’s Board.” The fact that Hunter Biden served on the company’s board was publicly known at the time.

In 2020, the indictment alleges, Smirnov brought new claims to the bureau, including that he knew of conversations from 2015 or 2016 in which Burisma executives said they hired the son “to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” Those claims by Smirnov were false, the indictment alleges.

Comer and other congressional Republicans spent months arguing that the FBI informant’s claims were evidence that Hunter Biden — and by extension his father — engaged in corrupt business deals, and that the FBI did not pursue those claims.

Thursday’s indictment implicitly argues that some of the most sensational charges Republicans have sought to level against the president and his son were based on lies.

Smirnov, according to the indictment, “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.”

Authorities allege that Smirnov, in talking to his FBI handler, repeatedly expressed dislike for Joe Biden, and at one point texted the agent that Biden was “going to jail.”

In a written statement, Comer stood by his role in the Smirnov affair, saying “the FBI’s actions in this matter are very concerning.” Comer also criticized the FBI for not being more forthcoming in what it knew about Smirnov’s claims, though it is rare for agents engaged in sensitive criminal and national security investigations to share informant accounts with elected officials.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the indictment shows that “Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts. We were right, and the air is out of their balloon.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said the charges against Smirnov show GOP efforts to impeach the president are “based on a lie” and called on House Republicans to drop the inquiry.

The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/07/comer-wray-fbi-contempt-conngress/" target=_blank>reported last spring that an FBI document containing the informant’s claims</a> was previously reviewed by the FBI under then-Attorney General William P. Barr, found not to be supported by facts, and subsequently dropped. When Comer’s team demanded to see the document, FBI officials warned that wider disclosure of the information could jeopardize the safety of a confidential source.

For a number of reasons, it is rare for the FBI to charge one of its informants with lying. First, the bureau tries to encourage people with important information to come forward, sometimes at great risk to themselves, and arresting some of the people who do so might discourage others from becoming informants. Second, many agents tend to view informants as frequently wrong or dishonest and don’t think it is worth trying to build a criminal case out of those flaws.

But in Smirnov’s case, Republicans made his allegations a kind of cause célèbre, saying he had offered key information in their probe of Hunter Biden and the president. FBI officials were repeatedly forced to answer politicians’ questions about Smirnov’s claims and faced accusations from conservatives that the FBI itself may be corrupt.

U.S. authorities said that when agents questioned Smirnov again in 2023, he repeated some past false claims, changed other parts of his story and suggested new falsehoods after claiming to have met with Russian officials.

Smirnov was arrested at a Las Vegas airport on Wednesday, when he flew into the United States from overseas, the Justice Department said.

Weiss, who brought the indictment against Smirnov, is the U.S. attorney in Delaware and was appointed to that position during the Trump administration. His investigation of Hunter Biden began during the Trump administration as well.

Last year, Weiss asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint him as a special counsel, which formally gave him more independence in charging decisions. He subsequently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/09/14/hunter-biden-indictment-gun-charges/" target=_blank>charged Hunter Biden in Delaware with lying on gun purchase forms</a> years ago. Weiss has also charged Hunter Biden in federal court in Los Angeles with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/07/hunter-biden-indicted-taxes/" target=_blank>multiple tax crimes</a>.

The dual indictments of Hunter Biden, filed after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/17/hunter-biden-plea-deal/" target=_blank>a plea deal fell apart last year</a>, mean that he could end up going on trial later this year — potentially twice — as his father runs for a second term as president.

Pulitzer Prize co-finalist for Feature Writing, 2017

Pulitzer Prize co-finalist for International Reporting, 2017

Part of team that won Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, 2018

Part of team that won Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, 2022

"October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election"

McGill University, BA 

Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department, and is the author of "October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election." He was part of reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 and 2022. In 2017 he was a co-finalist for the Pulitzer for Feature Writing and the Pulitzer for International Reporting. 

Devlin Barrett

Harvard University, BA IN Government

Jacqueline Alemany is a Congressional Investigations reporter for The Washington Post. Previously, she was the author of The Early 202, The Post's flagship early morning newsletter featuring news critical to the nation’s many power centers. Alemany is also an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC.

Jacqueline Alemany

washpost

the-washington-post

For the Washington Post 

A photo of Joe and Hunter Biden with the headline: 

Elizabeth Frantz for The Washington Post

The Washington Post

Former FBI informant charged with lying about Biden business

Foreign Policy

Intelligence

Justice

Military

National Security

prism://prism.query/site,/national-security/justice&limit=20

prism://prism.query/site,/national-security&limit=20

Sign up for Fact Checker, our weekly review of what's true, false or in-between in politics.

The Washington Post's coverage of national security issues, including the military, intelligence, justice, and foreign policy.