Donald Trump is back in the spotlight after reports surfaced that his administration is working to free a Russian spy. According to a Mother Jones report, informant Alexander Smirnov had been indicted after passing false information to the FBI about former President Joe Biden. This unusual development became known through a recent court filing. Attorney General Todd Blanche was assigned the task of getting Smirnov out of prison.
Smirnov had alleged that both Biden and his son, Hunter, had received a bribe of $5 million each from a Ukrainian energy company. It ultimately became part of the claims that fueled efforts to impeach Joe Biden. While Smirnov later admitted his crime, he was sentenced to six years in prison in 2025.
Fast forward to now, and reports of the Trump administration doing everything in its power to release the informant have drawn backlash. Recently, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow openly expressed her criticism of President Trump. She accused him of showing support for Russia, even though it would not think twice before harming Americans.
Russia is helping Iran to kill Americans and trump is rewarding them for doing it. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about our sons and daughters having to fight his war.
Team Trump offers Russia more sanctions relief, brushing off allegations it’s aiding Iran https://t.co/acIV0sXFLE
— No_Longer_Silent (@No_Silence_805) March 14, 2026
During live television on Monday, Rachel expressed, “Maybe our president just can’t stop himself from acting to help Russia even when Russia is acting to kill Americans. Maybe he just can’t stop himself. It just feels so good. He can’t stop.”
Maddow further alleged that the timing of the news is contrasting to the already escalating circumstances in Iran. She then blamed the fact that sufficient reporting has not been done on this silently taken step by the Trump government, even though the matter is extremely scandalous.
In her words, “But doesn’t it seem like in the middle of this war, he should be able to stop himself from at least helping Iran, from helping the Iranian regime, which he has just declared war on? I don’t know why this isn’t more of a show-stopping scandal in our country. Is it that hard to see what this is?”
It was back on March 4 that the silent political move was drafted within the government. The Justice Department filed an unexpected brief totally silently. It was revealed that Todd Blanche, on behalf of the government, supported Alexander Smirnov’s attempts to throw out the existing sentence and withdraw his plea admitting being guilty.
Incidentally, it was Trump himself, along with several MAGA Republicans and right-wing media publications, who used the information passed by Smirnov. They used it as an effective propaganda tool to overthrow the Biden era.
Back then, plenty of accusations were thrown at the ex-President for threatening to withhold a massive loan guarantee to Ukraine. The leverage at stake was said to be an impending case against an energy company, Burisma, which had hired Joe Biden’s son Hunter as a board member.
Rachel Maddow in disbelief that Trump’s ‘show-stopping’ new scandal isn’t bigger news https://t.co/CbJGCDTyVJ American media is no longer independent its NOW RAN BY OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and the Russian spy perhaps his crap on Biden isn’t crap Trump to par don smirnov
— merri ganjafairy (@MGanjafairy) March 17, 2026
Following suit, Smirnow sided with the right-wing conspiracy theory and spun the allegations of bribery against both Biden and his son. While initially the FBI investigation team did not reach any conclusive decision with these leads, the case was passed down to congressional Republicans, which yielded a shocking result.
They concluded that the accusations were true. They admitted the information passed by Smirnov to be reflective of Joe Biden leading a criminal family and pocketing a huge bribe.
