House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he would speak to Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christoper Wray after the bureau declined to comply with a House Oversight and Accountability Committee subpoena for a document that allegedly linked then-vice president Joe Biden to a pay-to-play bribery scheme.
“[Rep. James] Comer is simply following information that he has found. We should find all the information.”
Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), revealed in a May 3 letter that they received “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.” The whistleblower’s tip indicated the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI possessed an unclassified document that “describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-vice president Joe Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions,” they said in the letter to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On May 3, Comer filed a subpoena to Wray seeking an internal form, called an FD-1023, and gave a week for the agency to produce it.
Dunham said the FD-1023 “is used by FBI agents to record unverified reporting from a confidential human source.” The DOJ policy, he noted, “strictly limits when and how confidential human source information can be provided outside of the FBI.”
In the six-page letter, Dunham declined to confirm or deny whether the requested file exists.
“It is critical to the integrity of the entire criminal justice process and to the fulfillment of our law enforcement duties that FBI avoid revealing information—including unverified or incomplete information— that could harm investigations, prejudice prosecutions or judicial proceedings, unfairly violate privacy or reputational interests, or create misimpressions in the public,” he said.
“Often, even confirming the fact of the existence (or nonexistence) of an investigation or a particular piece of investigative information can risk these serious harms. ”
Comer said the response indicates that the document exists.
The congressman pledged to follow up with the FBI, without providing further details.
During Thursday’s appearance on Fox News, McCarthy said he would have a call with Wray over the document the House panel subpoenaed.
The White House pushed back on May 9, calling it another Republicans’ “unproven, politically motivated attacks.”
“When it comes to President Biden’s personal finances, anybody can take a look: he has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns to the American public.”
“Isn’t it quite interesting that foreign countries give millions of dollars to different LLCs [limited liability companies] that trace down to the entire Biden family, to grandchildren? What are they doing? Why are you hiding money in that direction? And why is foreign money coming from other countries while he’s in office? What are they doing?” McCarthy said Thursday.
The House speaker underscored that Congress has the authority to oversight the FBI.
“Why would you hold that information back? You’re protecting,” he said.
“As a member of Congress, it doesn’t matter if this person is Republican or Democrat. We have oversight of the FBI,” he said.
“If the FBI at any time think they could withhold information from Congress, we have a severe problem on our hands.”