Senators Seek to Interview FBI Officials Following Recent Whistleblower Claims

Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) speaks at a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on July 12, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) want two top FBI officials to appear for an interview to explain details about the agency’s alleged interference in the investigation of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, and his foreign business dealings.

The senators sent a letter to Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Bradley Benavides and Washington Field Office Intelligence Analyst in Charge Nikki Floris, demanding that both appear for a transcribed interview next month.

“On August 6, 2020, as we were finishing our September 23, 2020, report on Hunter Biden’s financial connections to foreign governments and questionable foreign nationals, you provided a briefing to us on behalf of the FBI and Intelligence Community,” the GOP senators, who have been investigating the younger Biden’s overseas dealings for years, wrote in their letter (pdf), which was dated Aug. 25. The Epoch Times obtained a copy of the letter.

But the pair said that the late 2020 briefing was actually "unnecessary and was only done because of pressure from our Democratic colleagues, including Democratic leadership, to falsely attack our Biden investigation as advancing Russian disinformation.

“The FBI succumbed to the Democratic pressure and provided the infamous August 6, 2020, briefing,” they wrote. "We made clear to you at the briefing that it was not relevant to the substance of our work.

“In response, you stated that the FBI is not attempting to ‘quash, curtail, or interfere’ in the investigation in any way.”

At the time, Grassley and Johnson were investigating the younger Biden’s role while on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings—which was the subject of a Ukrainian government investigation for years—as well as his financial transactions. He joined Burisma in April 2014 and was reportedly consulting with them about fighting corruption charges in Ukraine.

At the time that Hunter Biden was sitting on Burisma’s board, then-Vice President Joe Biden was the point person running U.S.-Ukraine relations for the Obama administration. In a comment to a think tank, the vice president infamously said that he threatened former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the White House would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees from the country if it didn’t fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who said he was investigating Burisma.

Grassley and Johnson requested records related to that briefing but haven’t received a response from FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“The FBI has consistently failed to respond in full to each request and failed to provide those critical records, which casts further doubt on the true purpose for the briefing,” the senators said.

‘Scheme’

“FBI officials initiated a scheme to downplay derogatory information on Hunter Biden for the purpose of shutting down investigative activity relating to his potential criminal exposure by labeling it ‘disinformation,’” the senators wrote in the letter.

Recent whistleblowers inside the bureau have alleged that FBI officials in August 2020 “initiated a scheme to downplay derogatory information on Hunter Biden for the purpose of shutting down investigative activity relating to his potential criminal exposure by labeling it ‘disinformation,’” the letter continues.

The two also have cited whistleblowers alleging that local FBI office leaders told employees not to touch the Hunter Biden laptop immediately after the FBI obtained it.

Grassley and Johnson ultimately released an interim report on Hunter Biden in September 2020. Weeks later, the New York Post published contents from the hard drive on his laptop, revealing his extensive business dealings, including emails with a Chinese Communist Party-linked company.