The true culprit behind Dizzy Don’s distractions rears its head as the man who faked Hunter Biden’s ‘bribery’ claim lands a jail sentence

Everyone knows that Donald Trump is a master of distraction, but sometimes those redirects are so well-crafted that even the most eagle-eyed Americans miss the real story.

It’s hard to think about much else when the incoming leader of our nation is levying broad threats at our allies, after all. With all of Trump’s wild claims and growing list of targets — which now includes Canada, the Gulf of Mexico, the Panama Canal, and Greenland — it’s no wonder no one’s thinking much about Hunter Biden, but that’s exactly what the Trump team is banking on.

Anytime dirty Don really starts acting out, there’s always another story. Whether its his latest lawsuit, some damaging revelation, or just a bit of bad optics, he’s always trying to distract us from something, and this time it’s a doozy. After spending essentially four entire years snatching at any opportunity to disparage the Bidens, and landing largely on Hunter Biden, all those Trumpian claims came crashing down on Jan. 8.

For years, Trump and his train of caterwauling cronies have been elbow-deep in claims against the second Biden son. Among the most damaging claims they levied accused the 54-year-old and his father of accepting bribes from Ukraine during Biden’s time as vice president. The claims followed both Biden men for years, had a heavy impact on the 2020 election, and landed Hunter with near-unceasing legal hurdles for years.

The man who made those claims, former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, is now facing jail time after those claims were proven false. So false, in fact, that he landed himself behind bars for a full six years after repeating them. He pleaded guilty, in December 2024, of “tax evasion and lying to the FBI,” according to Newsweek.

Claims of bribery haunted Biden across the 2020 election and the years that followed and were at the core of an impeachment attempt sought by Congressional Republicans. News that there’s no evidence to support the bribery claims puts all those corruption rumors to rest, but it can’t erase the political turmoil prompted by spreading such damaging lies with malicious intent.

Smirnov initially claimed that various executives from Ukrainian energy company Burma shelled out $5 million each to Biden and his son in 2015. An investigation into these claims revealed that Smirnov didn’t actually deal with Burma until after 2017, when Biden was no longer vice president. The case was already investigated by August 2020 — months before the election — and the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office recommended it be closed, but it remained a Republican talking point for years after.

That’s in some part thanks to Smirnov, who continued to repeat the claims up until September 2023, when the FBI interviewed him again and he upheld the lie — with a few shifted details — even adding that Russia could have obtained recordings of Hunter Biden from a hotel he stayed in during a trip to Ukraine’s capital city. The hotel was supposedly “wired” and under Russian control, but that doesn’t matter much since Hunter Biden has never actually traveled to Ukraine.

For spreading rampant lies, evading taxes, and inciting numerous politically-motivated investigations, Smirnov now faces six years in prison, though he will get credit for the months he’s already spent behind bars.