White House official tries to bully Fox News into retracting stories involving Biden — but the network isn't backing down



The Biden administration is demanding Fox News retract stories involving allegations of Biden family corruption.

White House spokesman Ian Sams sent a letter to Fox News executives alleging the news network has promoted a "false, discredited" allegation of bribery involving President Joe Biden.

Sams is referring to allegations that Alexander Smirnov brought to the FBI years ago — part of a controversial FD-1023 document — claiming Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, $5 million each in 2015 and/or 2016. Last month, special counsel David Weiss secured an indictment against Smirnov, a former FBI confidential human source, for allegedly lying about those claims.

On the simple basis that Weiss has lodged the allegations against Smirnov, Sams complained that Fox News "has taken no steps to retract, correct, or update its reporting."

He wrote:

We feel strongly that all Fox News Digital articles on this topic should at a minimum beupdated with editor’s notes informing readers that the source of this allegation has been federallyindicted for making it up. We also feel strongly that Fox News Channel television personalitieslike Hannity and Watters, among others, should inform their viewers on air that they have beensharing a discredited allegation from a source who has been federally indicted for making it up.

There are numerous problems with Sams' claims.

First, in all of the stories that Sams cited, Fox News never reported Smirnov's allegations as substantiated fact. This is an important distinction. Fox News reports on the allegations as exactly that: unproven claims.

Second, Sams purportedly does exactly what he claims Fox News is guilty of doing.

Sams presumes the allegations against Smirnov are true, and thus, he assumes Smirnov's guilt, contrary to the defendant's presumption of innocence. Sams does this by asserting as a fact that the allegations Smirnov brought to the FBI about the Bidens are "false." But Smirnov has not yet seen a jury of his peers, and prosecutors have not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Smirnov lied.

Thus, both Smirnov's claims are allegations and Weiss' claims are allegations — and reporting on mere allegations is not a journalistic transgression.

For its part, Fox News has no plans to comply with Sams' demands, sources told CNN.

In a formal statement, Fox News acknowledged its coverage of Smirnov's allegations and his run-in with Weiss, and the network vowed to continue reporting on it.

"Fox News Media has reported on all key developments since the announcement that Alexander Smirnov was charged with lying to the FBI, featuring the story prominently," the statement said. "We will continue to report on developments in all aspects of the ongoing investigations, hearings, and trials."

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Democrats Spin Weiss’s Latest Indictment Into New Russia Hoax To Let Biden Skate In 2024

The Trump-Russia hoaxers are now declaring the Bidens have been exonerated by Weiss’s indictment of Russian-connected CHS Alexander Smirnov.

'Smacks of impropriety': Feds rearrest FBI informant under 'bizarre circumstances' after judge ordered his release



The FBI informant indicted for allegedly lying to the FBI about Biden family corruption was rearrested Thursday.

Special counsel David Weiss — who was appointed to investigate Hunter Biden — arrested Alexander Smirnov last week after securing a grand jury indictment on allegations that Smirnov lied to federal authorities when he told them Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each in 2015 and/or 2016.

On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts released Smirnov from custody with a GPS tracker and an order to surrender his U.S. and Israeli passports. Prosecutors then asked the court for a stay on the order, which Albregts denied.

Despite the judge's order, federal authorities rearrested Alexander Smirnov on Thursday while he was meeting with his lawyers in Las Vegas.

In a court filing asking the judge for immediate relief, attorney David Chesnoff described the "bizarre circumstances" of the incident.

Chesnoff explained:

On February 21, 2024, the Government filed an application to reopen the detention hearing in the underlying case. The Government's application makes no mention of any second, then-unserved arrest warrant for Mr. Smirnov based on the same charges.

Despite Judge Albregts's prior ruling, denial of the stay request, and Mr. Smirnov's prior release from custody, on the morning of February 22, 2024, Mr. Smirnov was arrested for a second time — on the same charges and based on the same indictment ... while at the undersigned counsel's law office for meetings with counsel.

The incident, Chesnoff asserted, is an "interference with [Smirnov's] cherished Sixth Amendment rights."

Chesnoff, moreover, alleged that authorities have usurped the court because the court already ordered Smirnov released and denied prosecutors' request for a stay on that order.

Late Thursday, Judge Albregts ordered the government to respond to Smirnov's lawyers' request for an immediate detention hearing by Friday afternoon.

Andrew Weissmann, the former top FBI official, explained why the situation "smacks of impropriety."

"Special Counsel Weiss is playing with fire here-he can appeal the Magistrate's decision to release Smirnov (and has done so), but arresting him on the same case the Magistrate released him on smacks of impropriety," Weissmann explained.

— (@)

But the situation took a turn on Friday when Judge Otis Wright, a judge in the central district of California, revealed that he ordered Smirnov's rearrest and detention.

In his order, Wright accused Smirnov's attorneys of seeking their client's release "likely to facilitate [Smirnov's] absconding from the United States."

Smirnov's attorneys have denied that he is a flight risk. Chesnoff, for example, pointed to the fact that authorities found him at his attorneys' office when they rearrested him as evidence that he had no intention to flee.

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CNN Legal Analyst Breaks Down Just How ‘Unprecedented’ Burisma Source Rearrest Really Is

'I've never seen it happen'

Feds Rearrest Burisma Bribery Source Just Days After Judge First Released Him

Same charges and same indictment

Former prosecutor dumps cold water on Dem narrative that FBI informant's arrest clears Biden family of corruption allegations



Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy blew apart on Wednesday the assertion that allegations of Biden family corruption collapsed when the FBI arrested Alexander Smirnov.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Smirnov for allegedly lying to the FBI. Special counsel David Weiss accuses Smirnov — previously a confidential human source for the FBI — of falsely claiming Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid then-Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each in 2015 and/or 2016.

Democrats are using Smirnov's arrest to absolve the Bidens of wrongdoing.

But Democrats aren't being honest, according to McCarthy, who explained on Wednesday an obvious fact: Smirnov's allegations were not the "lynchpin" of the corruption allegations.

"[Investigators] had immense evidence that there was corrupt activity involved in that before hearing that there was an FBI informant who said that there was $10 million in bribes, and Smirnov information about that is not connected to what the House Republicans already had about Burisma," McCarthy said on Fox News.

"I think the Democrats are trying to spread the idea that he's the key to the case because now that his testimony is obviously been knocked down by the false statements charges — that makes it looks like the case collapses," he continued. "But It doesn’t for example disappear the $24 million that went into the Biden’s coffers from agents of corrupt and anti-American governments."

McCarthy, moreover, highlighted why he is "skeptical" about Weiss' conduct, especially over the timing of the Smirnov indictment.

"I still think that Weiss' main job here is to protect President Biden," McCarthy accused.

"He went a long time without charging Hunter, then tried to disappear the case on a sweetheart plea deal. He's only charged Hunter in the two cases because he didn't get away with that," he noted. "But when he pled the tax indictment against Hunter, he took pains to keep President Biden's name out of it even though the income that Hunter got was from exploiting his relationship with the president."

Additionally, McCarthy pointed to unusual details in court documents alleging that Smirnov had contact with high-level Russian officials.

"This whole business about whether Russian disinformation — I think this is a very peculiar complaint," he said. "There's stuff in there at the end [of the court document] that said Smirnov was told that Hunter stayed in a place in Kiev that the Russians had wired. There are no charges in the indictment or the complaint that relate to that information. It's like they just threw that in at the end."

Normally, McCarthy said, the Justice Department would not include that type of information in unredacted court documents because information about Russian intelligence activities is "highly, highly classified."

Indeed, some in the media are already using the Russian intelligence angle to claim that Hunter Biden was the victim of a Russian disinformation campaign.

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FBI Informant On Biden Claims To Have ‘High-Level’ Contacts With Russian Intelligence, Says DOJ

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Special Counsel Indictment Looks Just As Bad For David Weiss As The Charged FBI Informant

No one in Weiss’s office investigated Smirnov’s serious claims against Hunter and Joe Biden until after Grassley released a copy of the FD-1023 on July 20, 2023.