WASHINGTON — Alexander Smirnov, the former FBI informant charged with lying to the FBI about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in statements that were at the "heart" of House Republicans' ongoing impeachment inquiry, has been re-arrested by federal authorities, his attorneys said Thursday.
Smirnov made an initial appearance in federal court in Las Vegas, but his case was set to proceed in California. Smirnov had been ordered released by a magistrate judge in Nevada under conditions that included GPS monitoring after his first hearing Tuesday. Prosecutors subsequently asked a federal judge in California to detain him.
Officials said that Smirnov admitted that some information about Hunter Biden came from “officials associated with Russian intelligence,” and that Smirnov had claimed to have met with Russian intelligence officials just months ago. They said Smirnov “is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”
A copy of a new arrest warrant shows it was issued by a judge in California on Thursday.
Attorneys for Smirnov wrote that he was "arrested for a second time" on the same charges on Thursday morning while he was at their "law office for meetings with counsel."
They said that the fact that Smirnov was meeting with his attorneys when he was rearrested "contradicts the notion that he is a risk of flight."
“Mr. Smirnov was rearrested on an arrest warrant issued from the same court where he was planning on voluntarily appearing when required," they said in a statement.
Special counsel David Weiss’s office, which charged Smirnov, did not respond to NBC News request for comment.