An FBI informant convicted of lying to the Bureau about a fake bribery scheme involving the Bidens has been quietly released from prison just months into a six-year sentence—raising concern he could be pardoned by Donald Trump any moment.
Alexander Smirnov, who has multiple business ties to Trumpworld, was sentenced on January 8, days before Trump became president. He had pleaded guilty to fabricating a story that former President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, had received millions in bribes from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, as well as to a $2 million-plus tax evasion offense.
Yet despite Smirnov being judged a flight risk, with ties to Russian intelligence and foreign assets, the U.S.-Israeli citizen has been mysteriously missing from prison for at least the past four months, Disaster Girl can reveal. Following reports in April that the Trump administration was reviewing the case, concerns have now arisen that the president is considering an imminent pardon.
Smirnov had been serving his sentence at FCI Terminal Island, a low-security prison in Los Angeles. He is still listed at FCI Terminal Island on the Bureau of Prisons website, with a release date of February 2029. But while no filings on the docket for his appeal indicate how or why his release was ordered, he has not been there since at least July.
His absence became apparent when a process server attempted to serve Smirnov with papers for a civil lawsuit related to Smirnov’s time working as a confidential informant for the FBI on a securities fraud case involving California man Andrew Hackett. The process server hired by Hackett told Hackett he had been unable to locate Smirnov at Terminal Island. The prison confirmed to the process server that Smirnov is on “furlough,” according to emails and court filings reviewed by Disaster Girl
The server said that the person responsible for processing service at Terminal Island FCI had “confirmed that Alexander Smirnov is affiliated with the facility, but is not currently housed there,” but that they had declined to provide his current location or any further details. “I was advised to call back in approximately 15 days, as [Smirnov] may or may not return to the facility by that time. The representative was notably guarded and provided minimal information beyond that,” an email from the server to Hackett states.
By October, after repeated attempts to locate Smirnov at the prison, Hackett finally received an answer from the local Sheriff’s Department, which said: “They’ve confirmed that Mr. Smirnov has been furloughed, but no forwarding or new address has been provided.”
A spokesperson at the Department of Justice replied “no comment” to a list of questions about Smirnov’s furlough and if there was a pardon deal in the works. The White House and the Central California U.S. Attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Smirnov’s claims to the FBI about the Bidens and Burisma formed a crucial part of the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry hearings against Biden in 2023, but the Department of Justice last year said that Smirnov’s testimony was impossible and contained fabrications. Smirnov had even misidentified Burisma executives and described trips to foreign countries that never happened to his FBI handler, the government stated in its indictment.
After Smirnov pleaded guilty to making a false statement and tax evasion, the DOJ said Smirnov posed too significant a flight risk to be granted bail. The department stated that foreign intelligence agencies could resettle Smirnov outside the United States if he were released. The DOJ also claimed Smirnov had extensive contacts with Russian intelligence operatives, even meeting with Russian intelligence officials on megayachts docked in the Middle East.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Central District of California took the unusual step of arguing for Smirnov to be released pending his appeal, saying it planned to “review the government’s theory of the case.” The California prosecutor who filed the request in April did so under the direction of senior Department of Justice officials in Washington, The New York Times reported.
Smirnov had business ties to multiple Trump associates, according to two reports, including an investment in an app company that was a finalist to build an app for Trump, a bid ultimately won by Truth Social. FBI Director Kash Patel was among Republican voices who amplified Smirnov’s claims about the Bidens, which the DOJ had previously claimed were fabricated.
In April U.S. District Judge Otis Wright denied a joint motion from the government and Smirnov’s attorneys for him to be released pending appeal, ruling that “Court has already determined that the United States proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Smirnov poses a flight risk and that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of the person as required.”
Smirnov’s attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, had first filed for a 30-day emergency medical furlough in March 2024, which was later denied by the judge, arguing that “Mr. Smirnov requires additional glaucoma surgery to lower his intraocular pressure and prevent irreversible blindness from glaucoma.”
Chesnoff and Schonfeld did not reply to repeated emails.
The joint filing from the government and Smirnov’s defense attorneys requested that Smirnov be released to the state of Nevada, where he resided, with permission to travel to a California eye doctor permitted. It is unclear whether Smirnov’s current prison furlough, now stretching into a fifth month, is due to those medical reasons. A five-month medical furlough to another state seemed unusual to longtime Oregon criminal defense attorney Bear Wilner-Nugent, who told Disaster Girl, “It’s absolutely completely incongruous to anything glaucoma could require.”
While it is not known for certain if there are pardon negotiations in the works for Smirnov, or why the DOJ argued for Smirnov’s release pending appeal, Wilner-Nugent said the government’s argument for Smirnov’s release was highly unusual, as is the mystery over his current location, and raises concerns that he could be in line for an imminent pardon.
“Typically, the BOP prison locator is updated so that if someone is not in a BOP facility, we know that. Additionally, it is almost unheard of for the DOJ to argue for someone’s release pending appeal. I can’t say for sure based on the information I have that a pardon deal is in the works. But if one were, this is what it could look like. I can say that this is an extraordinarily concerning way for the government to be treating someone when they’re already accused of improper connections with him.”
Smirnov’s cousin Linor Shefer, who attended his court hearings and created a GoFundMe for his legal fees last year, works for a real estate development company–Dezer Development–that has long been in business with the Trump Organization. She did not respond to inquiries. Smirnov could not be reached for comment.
Update: After the publication of this report, Smirnov’s lawyers confirmed to The New York Post that he was placed on a medical furlough. “We appreciate the Bureau of Prisons recognizing the incredibly serious nature of his condition and agreeing to allow him to receive the necessary and lengthy procedures he is receiving,” Chesnoff told The New York Post.
