The FBI refused to provide Congress with an informant file allegedly exposing bribes President Joe Biden took while serving as vice president, the New York Post reports.
Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, served the FBI with a subpoena to turn over the documents by Wednesday at noon, according to the New York Post.
Scoop: FBI refuses to give Congress informant file alleging President Biden took bribes while VP https://t.co/D2GmMRfLhA
— Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) May 10, 2023
Comer, alongside Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, sought to retrieve a document allegedly containing an interview with a source who accused Biden of taking bribes from a foreign national.
“It’s clear from the FBI’s response that the unclassified record the Oversight Committee subpoenaed exists, but they are refusing to provide it to the Committee,” Comer told the New York Post.
“We’ve asked the FBI to not only provide this record, but to also inform us what it did to investigate these allegations. “The FBI has failed to do both. The FBI’s position is ‘trust, but you aren’t allowed to verify.’ That is unacceptable. We plan to follow up with the FBI and expect compliance with the subpoena,” he added.
“They didn’t give us the unclassified document. They sent us a five or six-page letter that I haven’t studied thoroughly yet,” Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley told the New York Post. (RELATED: ‘They Covered It All Up’: Jesse Watters Unloads On Biden Family Over FBI Documents Alleging Bribery)
“They didn’t dispute that it exists — that the document exists or that it is unclassified … why they haven’t given it, I don’t know,” Grassley added.
The FBI wrote a six-page letter with objections to the Oversight Committee’s subpoena, instead of turning over the document. “Information from confidential human sources is unverified and, by definition, incomplete,” FBI acting assistant director for Congressional affairs Christopher Dunham wrote.
“Confidential human sources often provide information to the FBI at great risk to themselves and their loved ones. The information they provide also can create significant risks to others who may be referenced in their reporting,” he continued.
“We also hope this helps you understand that keeping this kind of source information free from the perception or reality of improper influence — and preventing the redirection of this information for non-law enforcement or non-intelligence uses — is necessary for the FBI’s effective execution of our law enforcement and national security responsibilities,” Dunham concluded.
The alleged document requested by Comer is an FD-1023 informant report purportedly created or modified in June 2020, per NY Post.
The White House dismissed the importance of the document, claiming Republicans were engaging in a politically-motivated attack on the president’s family.
BREAKING: @GOPOversight investigation reveals the Biden family received over $1 million in payments from a Romanian national in pay-to-play influence peddling scheme when Joe Biden was VP. pic.twitter.com/f6UPsi2n0k
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 10, 2023
“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 spokesperson Ian Sams said to ABC News on May 3.
Comer and Grassley wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, explaining they received credible whistleblower disclosures, according to the New York Post.
“Based on those disclosures,” Republicans wrote, “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.”
