How clean is the dirt on Hunter Biden? Key informant charged with lying to the FBI

WASHINGTON >> Alexander Smirnov was cast by Republicans as one of the FBI's most trusted informants, offering a “highly credible” account of brazen public corruption by Joe Biden that formed a pillar of the House impeachment investigation of the Democratic president.

Then, last month, the script changed dramatically.

Smirnov, 43, finds himself charged with lying to the FBI, accused of fabricating a tale of bribery and espionage involving thenVice President Biden and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and he has told officials he has Russian intelligence contacts.

It's muddied the GOP inquiry plenty.

Interviews and a review of public records by The Associated Press suggest this was not likely Smirnov's first turn in what the government says is a cycle as a fabulist.

They offer a portrait of a businessman who operated a string of murky shell companies, ran with others who have been accused of fraud, and boasted of his own ties to the FBI. The episode highlights not only the perils of the Republicans' reliance on unverified information in their quest to confront Biden but also the risks inherent in the FBI's use of sometimes-unreliable informants who may have ulterior motives.

“How come in all of the universe nobody in America figured out for years that this guy is a fraud and a liar? How did this (expletive) make its way to Congress?” said Yossi Attia, a Los Angeles businessman who has interacted with Smirnov and once ran a penny stock company in which Smirnov held a substantial stake.

Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry have dismissed the fabrication allegations against Smirnov as irrelevant to their investigation and are raising doubts about the FBI's credibility. The FBI, for its part, has never publicly called the informant's information verified or complete.

“The trust level that I have with the FBI is zero,” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said in a Fox News interview this past week.