Oversight Chair Comer to hold FBI Director Wray in contempt of Congress over Biden doc alleging crime scheme
Fox News
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he will begin the process of holding FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress, despite viewing and being briefed by bureau officials on the subpoenaed document alleging Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme on Capitol Hill Monday.
The FBI brought the document in question–an FBI-generated FD-1023 form that allegedly describes a $5 million criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions–to Capitol Hill Monday for Comer, R-Ky., and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to review in a secure SCIF Monday after a back-and-forth between committee Republicans and the bureau over whether it was in compliance of his subpoena.
The FBI initially offered to allow Comer to review the document at FBI headquarters, but amid Comer’s threats to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress, the bureau offered additional accommodations to bring the physical document to Capitol Hill.
Despite the accommodation, Comer said Monday that the FBI is still not in compliance with the subpoena to turn over the physical document to the committee.
“At the briefing, the FBI again refused to hand over the unclassified record to the custody of the House Oversight Committee,” Comer said. “And we will now initiate contempt of Congress hearings this Thursday.”
“Given the severity and complexity of the allegations contained within this record, Congress must investigate further,” Comer continued. “The investigation is not dead. This is only the beginning.”
Comer said FBI officials confirmed Monday that the unclassified FBI generated record “has not been disproven and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation by a confidential human source who provided information about the vice president by being involved in a criminal bribery scheme is a trusted, highly credible informant who has been used by the FBI for over ten years and has been paid over 6 figures.”
Comer added: “These are facts and no amount of spin and frankly, lies from the White House or congressional Democrats can change this information.
Fox News Digital first reported Friday that the confidential human source who provided the Biden information to the FBI was a “pre-existing” FBI source who has been used in multiple investigative matters separate from the Biden information.
The source told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source was used by the FBI for “at least several years” before the generation of the June 2020 FD-1023 form detailing the Biden allegations.
The source also told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source has been “consistently reviewed by the FBI” and has been “found to be highly credible.”
The source said the individual participated in investigative matters during the Obama administration.
Raskin, on Monday, downplayed the document and the briefing on it, as well as the allegations, saying the source may be credible, but information the source reported came from “a conversation with someone else.”
“The work we’re talking about is secondhand hearsay,” Raskin said. “And so it’s not the source, the confidential source, who is the origin of the particular claim – that that confidential source is the person who reported it. That someone else was saying this.”
The revelations of the document come after Comer and GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, were approached by a whistleblower alleging that the FBI was in possession of a document — an FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020 — which explicitly detailed information provided by a confidential human source alleging Biden, while serving as vice president, was involved in a $5 million criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national in exchange for influence over policy decisions.
The information in the FD-1023 form, according to the whistleblower, reveals “a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose” and details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.
An FD-1023 form is used by FBI agents to record unverified reporting from confidential human sources. The form is used to document information as told to an FBI agent, but recording that information does not validate or weigh it against other information known by the FBI.