House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan opened an investigation into intelligence agencies for allegedly obstructing Republican Sens. Grassley of Iowa and Johnson of Wisconsin during their investigation of the Biden family’s foreign business dealings.
Jordan wrote a letter Wednesday to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines requesting documents and information related to accusations by Grassley that the FBI undermined Congressional oversight by falsely portraying the investigative activity as foreign disinformation. (RELATED: Comer Unveils Bank Records Showing Joe Biden Received $40,000 Of ‘Laundered’ Chinese Money)
#NEWS: @Jim_Jordan Opens Inquiry into Intelligence Community for Obstructing Senator @ChuckGrassley and @SenRonJohnson. pic.twitter.com/wWI4MUaxnp
— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization) November 1, 2023
“The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are investigating allegations that the U.S. Intelligence Community obstructed a congressional inquiry in 2020 by falsely alleging that the work of two U.S. Senators was advancing Russian ‘disinformation,'” the letter reads.
“Information we have obtained indicates that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) possesses documents and information vital to our oversight. Accordingly, we request your cooperation in this matter.”
The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) gave Grassley and Johnson a briefing in August 2020 and the briefing was used by his opponents to falsely claim his investigation was based on foreign disinformation, Grassley wrote in an Oct. 24 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray. (RELATED: FBI Director Refuses To Say Whether He’ll Cooperate With Congressional Oversight Of Biden Family)
“On August 6, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) then-Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Nikki Floris, and its then-Section Chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), Bradley Benavides, provided a so-called ‘defensive’ briefing to Senators Charles Grassley and Ron Johnson about the threat of Russian ‘disinformation,'” Jordan’s letter explains.
“Although the FBI claims that the briefing focused on Russia, the information that Floris and Benavides conveyed to the Senators ‘consisted primarily of information that [the Senators] already knew and information unconnected to [their] Biden investigation.’ The briefing, the existence of which was later leaked, hampered the Senators’ investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial connections to foreign governments and foreign nationals,” the letter adds.
The FBI had more than 40 confidential human sources providing “criminal information” on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and James Biden, Grassley said in the letter. One of those confidential sources supplied the FBI with allegations that Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky paid $10 million worth of bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden, Grassley stated.
Former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady confirmed the FBI FD-1023 containing the bribery allegations came from a confidential human source with previous experience working for the FBI, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the Daily Caller. (RELATED: FBI Headquarters Stonewalled Investigative Activity On Hunter Biden Ties To Ukraine, Former Prosecutor Testifies)
Jordan’s letter mentions an interview the Judiciary Committee and Weaponization Subcommittee conducted with Floris and her testimony surrounding the briefing.
“During her transcribed interview, Floris revealed that the intelligence used to justify the Senators’ ‘defensive’ briefing did not come from the FBI, but rather from ODNI. Specifically, she testified that ‘ODNI owns this whole process….ODNI took the lead… in drafting the script’ used to brief Senators Grassley and Johnson. She further testified: ‘I would certainly defer you to ODNI as far as the specifics that were in the script. It wasn’t FBI collected information,'” Jordan’s letter specifies.
Jordan is also investigating the FITF for its apparent role in coordinating with social media companies to censor speech online, including the New York Post’s reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The Biden family and its associates received more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan, according to a House memo released in September.
Hunter Biden was paid more than $80,000 per month to sit on Ukrainian energy firm Burisma’s board despite his lack of relevant experience, bank records released by the House Oversight Committee show.
Jordan’s letter gives Haines’ office until Nov. 15 to comply with his request.