“It should further be noted that the fact that the Defendant was attending a legal consultation meeting at his attorneys’ office contradicts the notion that he is a risk of flight,” Chesnoff wrote.
It’s the latest twist in a saga that has explosive political ramifications. House Republicans and their allies have repeatedly cited Smirnov’s allegations against the Bidens that prosecutors now say were fabrications that may have been initiated and fueled by high-level Russian intelligence operatives.
Smirnov, a dual United States and Israeli citizen, was arrested on Feb. 14 after returning from an international trip and charged with making false statements to the FBI and causing the creation of a false investigative report about the Bidens.
Prosecutors urged a Las Vegas-based federal magistrate judge, Daniel Albregts, to detain Smirnov pending trial, saying Smirnov had claimed deep ties to high-level Russian officials who could help him abscond if he sought to flee the country. They also said Smirnov had access to millions of dollars in assets and the ability to obtain an Israeli passport even if he forfeited his current passports to the court.
But Albregts said the prosecutors
fell short of proving that Smirnov couldn’t be released with GPS monitoring. He said the political ramifications of the case weren’t part of his consideration and he expressed doubts that Russia would welcome an FBI source who had purported to inform on his Russian contacts.
“I understand the concern about foreign intelligence agencies potentially resettling Mr. Smirnov outside of the United States, his connections to them, but I think on some level that’s speculative as well,” Albregts said. “Because, as Mr. Chesnoff points out, I don’t know what Mr. Smirnov will be thought of in Russia, but my guess is at this stage he probably thinks that’s not the most attractive place to go either if he was in fact inclined to go hide somewhere.”
Prosecutors have asked Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II to reverse Albregts’ decision, but Wright has yet to set a hearing. Smirnov’s attorneys are asking Wright to immediately call a hearing date in light of their client’s new arrest.