FBI Renews Scrutiny Over Handling of 2020 Election Interference Allegation Against China

Director Patel says the documents detail ‘alarming’ allegations that ‘while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public.’

FBI Director Kash Patel (R) and National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh testify before a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing in Washington on March 26, 2025. Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON—The FBI has stepped up scrutiny over how it handled previously undisclosed documents containing claims of Chinese interference in the 2020 elections.

The documents, which the agency’s director declassified on June 16 and shared with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), were dated months before the 2020 presidential election. They show that the FBI alerted federal agencies that fraudulent U.S. driver’s licenses from China were being shipped to the United States—then recalled the advisory and asked for the file’s destruction, according to files that The Epoch Times has obtained.