Special counsel 'continues to seek detention' of informant accused of lying in Biden probe

Special counsel David Weiss asked the government to reconsider the release of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who has been accused of making false statements about Hunter Biden's business dealings.

After Smirnov was ordered released by a magistrate judge on Tuesday, Weiss petitioned U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright to detain the defendant.

"The government continues to seek detention," Weiss said in a 24-page filing. "He claims to have contacts with multiple foreign intelligence agencies and had plans to leave the United States two days after he was arrested last week for a months-long, multi-country foreign trip. During this trip, the defendant claimed to be meeting with foreign intelligence contacts. Those foreign intelligence agencies could resettle Smirnov outside the United States if he were released."

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The special counsel accused Smirnov of lying about his access to cash.

"He has access to over $6 million in liquid funds — more than enough money for him to live comfortably overseas for the rest of his life," the petition explained. "He told Pretrial Services he only had $1,500 in cash-on-hand and $5,000 in a personal checking account."

As an Israeli-American citizen, Weiss said Smirnov could easily obtain a new passport and leave the country.

The former informant was released Tuesday with the condition that he wear a GPS monitoring device.

Prosecutors have revealed that Smirnov was feeding disinformation directly from Russian spies to Republican lawmakers.

Smirnov admitted that "officials associated with Russian intelligence" were involved with passing along a story about President Joe Biden's son that became the basis of allegations in the GOP impeachment inquiry, and prosecutors said the former FBI informant was “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections.”

NBC News reporter Tom Winter told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday that revelations about the sources for Smirnov's claims were nothing short of stunning.

"I think when you look at this in the totality of what was in the detention memo, which was extraordinary – I mean, prosecutors use these to really put the hammer down and show a bit about what type of evidence they will bring forward," Winter said. "When you look at the filing [Tuesday], they went really deep and unclassifying information, information that was unclassified on Valentine's Day, when Smirnov was arrested, deep into his background, that he was a 10-year-plus source for the FBI."

"He had a handler that he talked to nearly every day, which is a lot, by the way, for somebody who is a confidential human source," Winter added. "[He was] somebody who had been run out of the Seattle field office, assigned to an agent who works in the criminal squad there, and the key line from this, and we'll show a portion of the document that was filed [Tuesday], is that it says during his custodial interview on Feb. 14, so it occurs after Smirnov is in handcuffs, he admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about business person one who we've publicly identified is Hunter Biden. So he told the FBI after he is in handcuffs, 'Yes, I did this, and it came from individuals associated with Russian intelligence.'"