A Washington showdown looms over information the FBI refuses to release and Republicans who say they will begin contempt of Congress proceedings if they do not get it.
Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa want what’s known as an FD-1023 form that they believe has information pertaining to President Joe Biden and an exchange of money in return for policy decisions.
FBI Director Chris Wray was given until Tuesday to turn over the form, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
Comer and Grassley have a call scheduled with Wray on Wednesday, but there is no expectation that the call will produce the form, the Mail reported.
In a statement, the FBI said, “The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people. Releasing confidential source information could potentially jeopardize investigations and put lives at risk. The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have.”
In a release on the website of the House Oversight Committee, Comer called the refusal “obstructionist.”
“Whistleblower disclosures that Joe Biden may have been involved in a criminal bribery scheme as vice president track closely with what we are seeing in our investigation into the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes. Congress and the American people need to know what, if anything, the FBI did to verify the allegations contained within this record,” he said.
“If Director Wray refuses to hand over this unclassified record, the Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings,” Comer said.
Comer said that after being informed by the FBI that his initial search parameters were too broad, he narrowed them down to “June 30, 2020” and “five million.”
Grassley said the denial is in keeping with what the FBI has become.
“The FBI has continued to tie itself in knots to ignore a legitimate subpoena from Congress, which has a constitutional duty of oversight. The Bureau’s developed a serious reputation problem through its spate of failures and overreach, and leadership is doing it no favors by attempting to stiff-arm Congress,” he said.
“The FBI knows exactly what document Chairman Comer and I are seeking, and if they know us at all, they know we will get it, one way or another. If FBI leadership truly cares about protecting the agency’s reputation, they’d cooperate. These needless delays only harm the Bureau,” he said.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Wray, Grassley and Comer explained the issue.
“We have received legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures. Based on those disclosures, it has come to our attention that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions,” the letter said.
“It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose,” the letter said.
The letter voiced concern over what was done with the information, saying that “it would appear that the DOJ and the FBI have enough information to determine the truth and accuracy of the information contained within it. However, it remains unclear what steps, if any, were taken to investigate the matter.”
“The significant public interest in assessing the FBI’s response to this information, as well as growing concern about the DOJ and the FBI’s track record of allowing political bias to infect their decision-making process, necessitate exacting congressional oversight,” the letter said, admonishing the FBI and Justice Department that they “failed to disclose to the American people” that they had the information.
Biden was vice president from January 2009 through January 2017. That time period overlaps some of the activities of Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who dabbled in various international business ventures, particularly in the final years of that time frame.
Since 2020, when the contents of Hunter Biden’s former laptop computer were revealed, officials have been investigating alleged connections between the activities of father and son. Although some emails have implied a connection between the vice president and Hunter Biden’s activities, Joe Biden has said he had no connection to his son’s activities.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
