Smirnov had pleaded guilty last month to making the false statements about the Bidens and to evading taxes on more than $2 million in unreported income from 2020 to 2022. For the tax charge, the judge also ordered him to pay $675,000 in restitution.

Smirnov’s attorneys had asked for no more than four years behind bars, saying in a sentencing memorandum that their client, a dual Israeli and U.S. citizen, had led a “remarkable life,” having worked for the Israeli military and as an FBI source. They also said he had severe glaucoma that his doctor said would worsen with a lengthier prison stay.

In court on Wednesday, Smirnov’s attorney David Chesnoff invoked the sweeping pardon Joe Biden granted to Hunter Biden, who pleaded guilty to tax charges last year.

“The president’s son got away with it,” Chesnoff said, according to Courthouse News Service. “It doesn’t seem fair to the public at large that one guy gets away and the other guy is left holding the bag.”

Special counsel David Weiss, who led Smirnov’s prosecution, had asked for a sentence of six years.

“The Defendant is a liar and a tax cheat,” prosecutors wrote. “In committing his crimes he betrayed the United States, a country that showed him nothing but generosity, including conferring on him the greatest honor it can bestow, citizenship.”

Weiss brought charges against Smirnov last February while the special counsel was also leading two prosecutions against Hunter Biden. Smirnov’s indictment, at the time, served as a blow to House Republicans, who used Smirnov’s claims about the Bidens to justify their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

Smirnov, who had been a paid informant since 2010, had reported to the FBI in June 2020 that Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, paid Joe and Hunter Biden each $5 million while Joe Biden was vice president. The payments, Smirnov falsely claimed, were made in exchange for Joe Biden to use his political power to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma while Hunter Biden was a board member of the company.

Smirnov later admitted to lying about the claims, which he made on an FBI form known as an FD-1023 in 2020 while Joe Biden was running for president. In his plea agreement, Smirnov said he had been in contact with Russian intelligence officials.

Prosecutors characterized the fabrication as a brazen attempt on Smirnov’s part to influence the 2020 presidential election.

Smirnov’s sentencing marks an end to a prosecution that drew national attention after congressional Republicans elevated his damning claims about the Bidens in television interviews and other media.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) made a redacted version of the FD-1023 public in 2023, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) called Smirnov, whose identity was not known at the time, “highly credible” as Comer led the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.