Republicans won a victory in their effort to obtain a document they say implicates President Joe Biden in a bribery scheme to influence U.S. foreign policy.
FBI Director Christopher Wray will now handover an internal FBI document that a whistleblower says shows that Biden participated in a $5 million scheme while he was vice president.
Wray acted evasive to the congressional request to handover the document known as a FD-1023 as recently as Wednesday.
The FBI director gave in as Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., threatened him with criminal contempt of Congress charges if the document was not handed over as required by law.
Comer noted on Wednesday that Wray had confirmed that the document existed.
“We are doing the constitutional job of oversight. I have read that document. If he would read it, and it’s an unclassified document. He admits that it exists, and we aren’t interested in whether of not the accusations against Vice President Biden are accurate or not, we are responsible for making sure that the FBI does its job,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who signed a joint letter with Comer last month calling on the FBI to release the document, told Fox News.
Grassley also expressed concern over political bias at the FBI that had been exposed through the Durham Report and its handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
The White House dismissed the GOP effort to obtain the document as partisanship earlier this week.
“For going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said last month after Comer and Grassley first publicized their effort to obtain the document.
FBI Claimed Document Release Could Be Harmful
The FBI refused to handover the document last month citing the need to maintain confidentiality.
“Significant harm to investigative work—and to the program as a whole—could result from dissemination of FD-1023s or other similar documents. It is also critical to keep confidential the FBI’s methods for identifying, recruiting, retaining, and receiving information from confidential human sources,” FBI Acting Assistant Director of Congressional Affairs Christopher Dunham wrote in a May 10 letter to Comer. “Information from a confidential human source, including as reported in an FD-1023, certainly warrants such protections. Information from confidential human sources is unverified and, by definition, incomplete. An FD-1023 form documents information as told to a line FBI agent. Recording the information does not validate the information, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI.”
Congress to Review FBI Document Today
Republican and Democratic members of Congress will review the document today in a secure SCIF on Capitol Hill under an agreement with the FBI.
It will be provided with limited redactions to protect confidential information. A spokesperson for House Oversight and Accountability Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin told CNN.
“Ranking Member Raskin has accepted the FBI’s invitation to review the subpoenaed document on Monday alongside Chairman Comer,” they said. “The Ranking Member appreciates the agency’s efforts to accommodate the committee and the opportunity to review and be briefed on the Trump Justice Department’s follow up on the unsubstantiated tip sheet after weeks of Chairman Comer’s partisan spin.”
John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
From 19FortyFive
The End of Donald Trump Has Arrived
