UPDATE: Tuesday, Feb 27, 2024 · 2:30:43 AM +00:00
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Irontortoise
One new fact to emerge about the Smirnov case tonight on Rachel Maddow’s show is that when his LA apartment was searched, they found a whole arsenal of guns there — 9 in total. No wonder the LA judge wasn’t going along with his lawyers’ plea for home confinement!
From LVNJ:
A Los Angeles federal judge ruled that Alexander Smirnov will be kept in custody on Monday, reversing a previous decision from a Las Vegas judge and ensuring the former FBI informant stays behind bars while facing charges of lying to officials.
Alexander Smirnov, a 43-year-old dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, is accused of falsely reporting to the FBI that executives with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, $5 million each in an alleged bribery scheme, a claim that has become central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.
On Sunday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an attempt to stop the detention hearing from being heard Monday morning in a Los Angeles federal court. The court denied a petition filed by Smirnov’s Las Vegas defense attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, after Smirnov was arrested on a warrant out of California.
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Smirnov appeared in a Los Angeles federal court on Monday morning for a detention hearing in front of U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II.
In a court order filed Friday, Wright wrote that Smirnov’s attorneys sought an emergency hearing in Nevada to secure his release from custody, “likely to facilitate his absconding from the United States.”
Following a half-hour detention hearing Monday, Wright said, “I have not changed my mind.”
At least he won’t be fleeing overseas anytime soon!