LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A federal judge has denied the U.S. government's request to release from prison a former FBI informant who made up a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that later became central to Republicans' impeachment effort. The decision, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, comes weeks after a new prosecutor reassigned to Alexander Smirnov's case jointly filed a motion with his attorneys asking for his release while he appeals his conviction. In the motion, the U.S. government had said it would review its "theory of the case."