FBI to deliver memo on alleged Biden bribery scheme to House GOP

FBI Director Christopher Wray has agreed to deliver a subpoenaed document to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability that reportedly details an alleged criminal bribery scheme between President Biden and a foreign national during the time Biden was serving as Vice President under Barack Obama. 

The decision to comply with the subpoena follows threats of contempt of Congress made by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, according to Just The News.



The document in question is an FD-1023 that was substantiated by a "highly credible" whistleblower, which resulted in House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Indiana) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issuing the FBI a subpoena for the document last month.

FBI Director Wray stated on Wednesday that he would not hand over the document but would allow the committee to come read it at the FBI. However, an agreement was reached late-Thursday night, with the FBI agreeing to bring the document to the committee on Monday, the outlet reports.

"Chairman Comer will receive a briefing from the FBI and review the document on Monday," the committee told the outlet in a statement. "Chairman Comer has been clear that anything short of producing the FD-1023 form to the House Oversight Committee is not compliance with his subpoena. This unclassified record contains pages of details that need to be investigated further by the House Oversight Committee."

The FBI told the outlet that they have been reluctant to comply with the congressional subpoena due to the "sensitive" content pertaining to the document.
 

"Director Wray offered to provide the Committee's Chairman and Ranking Member an opportunity to review information responsive to the subpoena in a secure manner to accommodate the committee, while protecting the confidentiality and safety of sources and important investigative sensitivities," the FBI told Just The News in a statement. "The FBI has continually demonstrated its commitment to working with the Committee to accommodate its request, from scheduling briefings and calls to now allowing the Chair to review information in person. The FBI remains committed to cooperating with the Committee in good faith."

Furthermore, the FBI said that its agents use FD-1023 forms "to record unverified reporting by a confidential human source."

"Documenting the information does not validate it, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information verified by the FBI," the bureau added. "Revealing unverified or possibly incomplete information could harm investigations, prejudice prosecutions or judicial proceedings, unfairly violate privacy or reputations, create misimpressions in the public, or potentially identify individuals who provide information to law enforcement, placing their physical safety at risk."

On May 3, Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley issued the subpoena to Biden's AG Merrick Garland regarding whistleblower disclosures showing that the FBI and DOJ hold documents regarding an alleged bribery scheme undertaken between Biden and a foreign national during his VP term.

Comer and Grassley believe that "the DOJ and the FBI have enough information to determine the truth and accuracy of the information contained within it." 

"The significant public interest in assessing the FBI’s response to this information, as well as growing concern about the DOJ and the FBI’s track record of allowing political bias to infect their decision-making process, necessitate exacting congressional oversight," they wrote in the subpoena.

"The DOJ and the FBI appear to have valuable, verifiable information that you have failed to disclose to the American people," they wrote, before indicating that there must be "an independent and objective review of this matter, free from those agencies’ influence."