Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds appoints state Sen. Chris Cournoyer as her new lieutenant governor

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed state Sen. Chris Cournoyer to be her lieutenant governor Monday, more than three months after her first and only No. 2 in elected office resigned to take over the state bankers association.

Cournoyer was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2018 and has a background in technology, having earned a computer science degree, done website design and worked for a tech company. In the Senate, she chaired the Education Budget Committee and was vice chair of the State Government Committee.

“She has the character, judgement, and ability needed to serve as governor in case I were ever unable to — qualities that also make her ideally suited to support our work on a day-to-day basis," Reynolds said in a statement. "I can’t wait to deploy Chris’ extensive experience on key legislative committees, including Ways and Means, and expertise in technology, innovation, and artificial intelligence on a wide range of issues important to Iowans.”

Cournoyer is is from LeClaire, in eastern Iowa.

Reynolds’ initial running mate, Adam Gregg, resigned his position Sept. 3 after serving more than seven years in office, saying that “my time in public service must come to a close.” The Iowa Bankers Association on the same day announced Gregg as its incoming president and CEO.

Reynolds described Gregg as “a tremendous partner.”

Iowa law states that the governor must appoint someone to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term.

Reynolds told reporters in early October that she would make a decision on Gregg’s successor after the 2024 election, and the end-of-the-year rollout will allow Cournoyer a few weeks to settle in before joining Reynolds at her annual condition of the state speech after the legislative session begins in January.

“We want to get it right, you know, not only for the team, but for Iowans, and so I want to be very thoughtful in how I do that,” Reynolds said in October.

Up for reelection in 2026, Reynolds will likely be joined by Cournoyer on the ballot if she chooses to run again.

Reynolds, who was former Gov. Terry Branstad’s lieutenant governor, became governor in 2017 when Branstad was named U.S. ambassador to China. She was elected to a full term in 2018 and was reelected in 2022.

Reynolds in 2017 had named Gregg as her “acting” lieutenant governor after her own promotion. That followed legal questions over whether the Iowa Constitution gave an elected lieutenant governor the authority to appoint her replacement if she needed to step in as governor in the event the elected governor dies, resigns, or was removed from office. Until their inauguration in 2019, Gregg was left out of the line of succession.

In November’s election, Iowa voters approved a legislatively referred constitutional amendment to explicitly allow for that appointment.

Iowa's Governor Kim Reynolds, right, speaks as Chris Cournoyer is appointed lieutenant governor, left, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in De Moines, Iowa. (Erin Murphy/The Gazette via AP)

Iowa's new Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer, left, speaks at the Capitol along with Governor Kim Reynolds, right, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in De Moines, Iowa. (Erin Murphy/The Gazette via AP)

Iowa's new Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer, right, takes her oath at the Capitol, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in De Moines, Iowa. (Erin Murphy/The Gazette via AP)

Iowa's new Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer speaks at the Capitol, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in De Moines, Iowa. (Erin Murphy/The Gazette via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former FBI informant pleaded guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Alexander Smirnov entered his plea to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income.

An attorney for Smirnov, 44, declined to comment after the hearing in Los Angeles federal court.

Prosecutors and the defense have agreed to recommend a sentence of between four and six years in prison when he's sentenced next month.

Smirnov will get credit for the time he has served since his February arrest on charges that he told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015.

Smirnov had been an informant for more than a decade when he made the explosive allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, after “expressing bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, prosecutors said.

But Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017, according to court documents. An FBI field office investigated the allegations and recommended the case be closed in August 2020, according to charging documents.

No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes as president or in his previous office as vice president.

While Smirnov’s identity wasn’t publicly known before the indictment, his claims played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. Before Smirnov's arrest, Republicans had demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the unverified allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if they were true.

During a September 2023 conversation with investigators, Smirnov also claimed the Russians probably had recordings of Hunter Biden because a hotel in Ukraine’s capital where he had stayed was “wired” and under their control — information he said was passed along to him by four high-level Russian officials.

But Hunter Biden had never traveled to Ukraine, according to Smirnov's indictment.

Smirnov claimed to have contacts with Russian intelligence-affiliated officials, and told authorities after his arrest this year that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.

The case against Smirnov was brought by special counsel David Weiss, who also prosecuted Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges. Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to federal charges in the tax case. But he was pardoned this month by his father, who said he believed “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

In this courtroom sketch, defendant Alexander Smirnov speaks in Federal court in Los Angeles, Feb. 26, 2024. (William T. Robles via AP)

FILE - Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, left, walks out of his lawyer's office in downtown Las Vegas after being released from federal custody Feb. 20, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)