Oversight Committee Chairman Dissatisfied With FBI’s Lack of Transparency in Alleged Biden Bribery Scheme

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, is saying he is frustrated by the FBI’s lack of transparency in turning over a whistleblower complaint form that reportedly alleges President Biden received a $5 million bribe while he was vice president. On May 3, Mr. Comer subpoenaed the document as a part of his committee’s investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. Nearly a month later, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, has refused to give Congress the document. Messrs. Comer and Wray had their first meeting on Wednesday via phone, which was only scheduled after Mr. Comer threatened to hold the director in contempt of Congress. During the call, Mr. Wray acknowledged the existence of the whistleblower complaint, but refused to hand it over to Congress. Instead, the FBI says Mr. Comer and his colleagues can view the form in person at FBI headquarters, but they say that is not enough. “We have been clear that anything short of producing these documents to the House Oversight Committee is not in compliance with the subpoena,” Mr. Comer wrote in a statement after the phone call on Wednesday. “If the FBI fails to hand over the FD-1023 form as required by the subpoena, the House Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings.”If Mr. Wray is held in contempt of Congress, it is likely that nothing will come of it. Following such congressional resolutions, the Department of Justice is given the latitude to pursue criminal charges against those individuals. It’s unlikely that Mr. Biden’s DOJ, of which Mr. Wray is an employee, would prosecute him.There is precedent for the DOJ ignoring contempt resolutions when they are levied at their own employees. In 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress for his lack of cooperation with the congressional inquiry into the Fast and Furious operation that saw American officials trafficking guns to Mexican cartels in order to track down leadership. In the end, nothing came of Mr. Holder’s congressional contempt resolution. The DOJ does pursue contempt of Congress prosecutions in some instances. President Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has been convicted of defying a congressional subpoena during the January 6 Select Committee investigation, for which he was held in contempt. He was sentenced to a short prison term and is appealing the conviction. Mr. Comer argues that Mr. Wray has committed the same offense of which Mr. Bannon was convicted. “It’s going to look very similar to what the Democrats did with Steve Bannon,” Mr. Comer said Tuesday of holding Mr. Wray in contempt. “I mean, that was the perfect example of a congressional committee holding someone in contempt of Congress.”Messrs. Comer and Wray have been going back and forth for nearly a month about this form, with Mr. Comer growing more agitated by the week about the FBI’s lack of cooperation. “The FBI’s decision to stiff-arm Congress and hide this information from the American people is obstructionist and unacceptable,” Mr. Comer wrote in a statement on Tuesday. The Oversight Committee “will now be taking steps to hold the FBI Director in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a lawful subpoena.”The document was supposed to be handed over to the Oversight Committee by Tuesday, per a subpoena. Just hours before the deadline, the FBI’s acting legislative affairs chief, Christopher Dunham, sent a letter to Mr. Comer throwing cold water on the prospect of disclosing the whistleblower report. Mr. Wray is worried about “chilling effect that could flow from the wide dissemination of investigative files,” the letter, which was first obtained by Punchbowl News, states. Mr. Dunham wrote in the letter that the FBI has “identified additional information” about the whistleblower report and that Mr. Wray “looks forward to discussing how we plan to make that information available to the Committee during your call.”On Tuesday morning, Mr. McCarthy raised the stakes for Mr. Wray. “If he misses today’s deadline to turn over subpoenaed documents to Congress, I am prepared to move contempt charges against him,” Mr. McCarthy said on Twitter. The whistleblower form allegedly details a $5 million payment that was paid to Mr. Biden while he was vice president. The whistleblower first came forward on June 30, 2020, when he or she sent a letter to Senator Grassley, who shortly thereafter launched his own investigation into Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter.Speaking with Fox News on May 25, Mr. Comer said that the whistleblower form is critical to his committee’s investigation as it is just one piece in a larger pattern of behavior by the Biden family. “The reason that I think it’s very credible is this claim was made years before anyone knew about these different shell companies and knew exactly what the Biden family did in counties like Romania and China to get money,” he said. “The FBI’s refusal to produce this single document is obstructionist,” Mr. Comer wrote to Mr. Wray on May 24 before his threat to hold Mr. in contempt. “Public corruption, influence peddling, federal ethics/financial disclosure regulations, and national security matters are directly within the purview of the Committee’s oversight authorities.”“The information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national,” Mr. Comer wrote in a statement. “The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself.”While congressional Republicans have long focused on Hunter Biden as being at the nexus of possible payment schemes to the family, the whistleblower report being sought by Messrs. Comer and Grassley could be the first instance of a whistleblower directly tying the sitting president to foreign entities.

Oversight Committee Chairman Dissatisfied With FBI’s Lack of Transparency in Alleged Biden Bribery Scheme

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