One of the American Senate’s elder statesmen, Senator Grassley, is making the explosive claim that the FBI has in its possession a number of recorded phone calls between a foreign national, Hunter Biden, and President Biden. 

In a speech given on the Senate floor on Monday, Mr. Grassley spoke of the now notorious whistleblower form submitted to the FBI in 2020 that alleges the elder Mr. Biden took a $5 million bribe as vice president at the behest of his son. Mr. Grassley said that the foreign national who allegedly made that bribe “has audio recordings of his conversations with them — 17 such recordings.”

“According to the [whistleblower form], the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden,” as well as “two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden. These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot,” Mr. Grassley said. 

“Based on the facts known to the Congress and the public, it’s clear that the Justice Department and the FBI haven’t nearly had the same laser focus on the Biden family,” he added. 

The FBI refused for weeks to hand over the whistleblower document but caved to pressure last week and allowed members of the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee to view it.

The indictment of President Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith hinges in part on  the transcript of a recording between Mr. Trump and others that shows him discussing classified information. Mr. Grassley is pointing out that information is quick to be leaked about the former president but not about the incumbent. 

“Special Counsel Jack Smith has used a recording against former President Trump,” Mr. Grassley said on the Senate floor. “Well, what is U.S. Attorney Weiss doing with respect to these alleged Joe and Hunter Biden recordings that are apparently relevant to the high-stakes bribery scheme? Getting a full and complete [whistleblower form] is critical for the American people to know and understand the true nature of the document and to hold the FBI and the Justice Department accountable.”

Mr. Grassley and the chairman of the House oversight committee, Congressman James Comer, both recently reviewed the whistleblower form in question. Yet the document has not been made available to the wider public and contains troublesome redactions, Mr. Grassley said.

“The document that Comer and I read had many two or three half-inch redactions, not whole sentences redacted,” Mr. Grassley said. “So, Director Wray placed redactions on a document that is already unclassified.”

“This goes to show you the disrespect that the FBI has for Congress,” Mr. Grassley added. 

A 42-year veteran of the Senate, Mr. Grassley is no Tea Party gadfly hell-bent on agitating against his party’s leadership. For 28 years he served alongside Mr. Biden in Congress’s upper chamber. 

Mr. Grassley has previously investigated the nature of the younger Mr. Biden’s foreign business deals. In October 2022, Mr. Grassley’s Senate office sought information related to the Biden family’s involvement with business entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party. “The Justice Department’s and FBI’s continued silence on these matters is deafening and further erodes their credibility,” Mr. Grassley wrote at the time. 

“Simply put, enough is enough — the Justice Department and FBI must come clean to Congress and the American people with respect to the steps they have taken, or failed to take, relating to the Hunter Biden investigation,” he added.