Following weeks of demands by congressional Republicans and a contempt warning against Director Christopher Wray, the FBI offered on Friday to show top legislators an agency document that allegedly relates to President Joe Biden and his family next week.
The FBI announced that it would generate the document in a safe location within the United States. Capitol for Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Jamie Raskin, the panel’s leading Democrat.
An internal FBI form called an FD-1023, which agents use to record tips and information they get from trusted human sources but cannot verify, is at issue.
According to the FBI, such paperwork may include unconfirmed and partial information, and simply documenting a tip does not make it accurate.
The FBI stated that it had promised in good faith to give the Committee all the material it had initially requested and more by agreeing to give access to the document in question along with a briefing to provide context.
The FBI has asked for reasonable safeguards since they are frequently used to preserve the physical safety of sources and the objectivity of investigations, both in response to legislative demands and in court during criminal prosecutions.
Comer stated in his response to the FBI concession that “anything short” of giving the document to the committee would not be in compliance with the subpoena and that it would not be enough to stop him from proceeding with contempt.
Before moving to the House floor, the committee must approve a contempt charge for Congress.
Comer served a subpoena on Wray this month requesting specific FBI paperwork from June 2020.
Comer wrote to Wray on May 3 and stated that “it had come to our attention” that the bureau has a document that “describes an alleged criminal scheme” involving Biden and a foreigner “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” when Biden was vice president and included “a precise description” about it.
Comer wrote the letter with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
In the letter’s opening line, the congressmen used the word “alleged” three times but provided no proof of the claims’ truth or any information regarding what they claimed to be “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.”
The subpoena effort, according to the White House, is additional proof of how congressional Republicans “have been hurling unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks” against the Biden family “without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions that were influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”
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