“$5 million each”: the FBI informant’s bribery story

OPEN THE RECORD

Sources & limits.

Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.

1. Sen. Chuck Grassley, 20 July 2023: Grassley obtains and releases FBI record alleging VP Biden foreign bribery scheme ↗

   Publishes the redacted FD-1023 of 30 June 2020, the informant report later traced to Alexander Smirnov.

2. United States v. Alexander Smirnov: indictment, February 2024 ↗

   Original indictment sets out alleged fabrication and chronology; an indictment alone is an accusation. Later plea, sentence and appellate disposition are separately identified.

3. AP: Smirnov pleads guilty, December 16, 2024 ↗

   Wire reporting of the plea hearing, read with the subsequent judicial order and appellate memorandum. No assertion here that Russian contacts by themselves prove every claim about foreign direction.

4. United States v. Smirnov: April 30, 2025 release order, court-text mirror ↗

   Mirror of district-court order recounting accepted pleas and January 8 sentence and denying release pending appeal. Judicial text, not the mirror’s AI summaries, is used.

5. New York Post via AOL: Smirnov attorney confirms medical furlough, November 7, 2025 ↗

   Reporting quotes defense lawyer David Chesnoff about medical treatment. A furlough is not a pardon or a vacated conviction; this report does not establish his exact location on the edition date.

6. Ninth Circuit: United States v. Smirnov, September 22, 2026 ↗

   Official three-page, nonprecedential appellate memorandum in consolidated appeals 25-400 and 25-408: dismissed in part and affirmed in part. It addresses custody-credit and plea-agreement arguments, not a new trial of the bribery allegations.

7. House Republican impeachment inquiry report, August 19, 2024 ↗

   Original majority investigators’ argument; conclusions about a conspiracy are attributed, not adopted as judicial findings.