A little less than a year ago, Republicans in Congress were proclaiming that the testimony of a mysterious unnamed FBI informant implicated Joe Biden in a scheme to oust a Ukrainian official in exchange for a bribe. On Monday, that informant—who we now know is named Alexander Smirnov—was in handcuffs before a judge, charged with feeding the Justice Department false information, potentially on behalf of the Russian government. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

For Biden supporters, this twist could be almost comically satisfying—if it weren’t for permanent damage Smirnov’s testimony has already done in creating the public perception of a “Biden crime family.”

Smirnov, a 43-year-old dual American-Israeli citizen, seems like a character straight out of a bad spy thriller. He was arrested in Las Vegas last week as he was getting off an international flight and, according to prosecutors, preparing for another “monthslong, multicountry foreign trip.” Photos of him leaving detention after news of his arrest broke showed Smirnov in a leather jacket, his face entirely covered by a hat, mask, and scarf. Sketches from Monday’s court hearing show Smirnov to be an inconspicuous-enough bearded man in glasses with short-cropped brown hair. Reporters at the courthouse noted that Smirnov, who speaks Russian, made his plea in heavily accented English.

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