Ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, a key witness in the impeachment probe into President Joe Biden regarding son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, warned that he is going to go blind in jail if he does not get treatment for glaucoma.
Smirnov was indicted by a federal grand jury in February for allegedly making false statements and manufacturing records concerning Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine. He has been in Santa Ana City Jail in California as U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II deemed him a flight risk.
On Tuesday, Wright denied a motion from Smirnov's lawyers to reconsider a 30-day medical furlough that they requested to get Smirnov eye surgery.
In a motion filed on Monday, Smirnov's legal team said that he has a history of advanced open angle glaucoma in both eyes. They said that Smirnov already has severe optic nerve damage from glaucoma and has had multiple surgeries but requires more "to lower his intraocular pressure and prevent irreversible blindness from glaucoma."
Smirnov's lawyers asked for him to be released on Tuesday so he can travel to San Francisco to have surgery on Wednesday and attend medically required post-operative appointments with Dr. H. George Tanaka through April 29. However, if that option was off the table, Smirnov's lawyers asked the judge to issue an order that would require the United States Marshal Service (USMS) to transport Smirnov to his surgery and post-operative appointments.
Wright did not outright deny Smirnov medical treatment when he initially denied his motion on March 13 but gave him the option to go to a medical facility under contract with the USMS.
"Assuming the necessary procedure cannot be performed at his current facility, upon approval by the USMS, he will be transported to an appropriate medical facility under contract with the USMS, for the necessary medical procedure," Wright wrote in his initial denial of the motion.
"The Court finds the established protocol is reasonable, considering the limited resources of the USMS and the fact that he is presently housed in a large metropolitan area equipped with first-rate medical resources necessary to address defendant's needs while not compromising the security interests of the government."
Responding to Wright's denial of the motion to reconsider the medical furlough, Smirnov's lawyer told Newsweek via email on Wednesday: "We are deeply concerned for our client and his medical condition. We were hopeful his skilled physician would be permitted to treat him and our now hopeful that he will quickly receive care provided by the government."
After the news broke of Smirnov's arrest, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee that is leading the probe into the Biden family, said that the impeachment inquiry has "essentially ended."
House Republicans have been trying to impeach Biden for more than a year on accusations that the president was involved with and benefited from his son's foreign business dealings while he was vice president under Barack Obama. The White House has repeatedly denied that Biden ever had anything to do with his son's dealings and the president has called the probe a "baseless political stunt."
Meanwhile, Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said that the revelation involving Smirnov doesn't change the fundamental facts driving Biden's impeachment inquiry. Jordan and James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the Oversight Committee, have continued their investigation despite the Smirnov situation.
Update 3/28/24, 9:04 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Alexander Smirnov's lawyer.
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