A federal judge in California has issued a warrant for the rearrest of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who is at the center of House Republicans' ongoing impeachment inquiry. Smirnov was initially apprehended by federal authorities at the Las Vegas airport last week after returning from an international flight and subsequently released with a GPS monitor by a federal magistrate judge in Nevada on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors convinced the judge that Smirnov, charged with making politically motivated false allegations about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, was "likely" planning to flee the United States. Smirnov's false accusations of bribes to the Bidens were crucial to the impeachment inquiry, although the inquiry leaders are downplaying their reliance on them.

The FBI documented the alleged lies Smirnov told in a file in 2020, and prosecutors have recently expressed concerns that he is engaging in peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November. Smirnov's attorneys, David Z. Chesnoff and Richard A. Schonfeld, are advocating for his release in both the federal court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals without commenting on the case itself.

The case against Smirnov will unfold in California, where the federal judge ordered his rearrest, highlighting the gravity of the situation surrounding the former informant as he faces serious allegations and potential consequences.