FBI Director Christopher Wray blew through another subpoena deadline and faces a contempt charge for refusing to hand over a form allegedly describing a “criminal scheme” involving President Joe Biden.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who is conducting an investigation into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, said Tuesday the FBI again declined to hand over the FBI record, which lays out an alleged “scheme” tied to Joe Biden and a yet-unnamed “foreign national” during the president’s vice presidency.
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Comer had sent a letter to Wray last week threatening to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings if the FBI director did not cooperate, and Wray quickly scheduled a phone call for this Wednesday in response, but Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) still demanded that the FBI hand over the document by Tuesday or face possible contempt. The FBI director again refused to do so.
“Today, the FBI informed the Committee that it will not provide the unclassified documents subpoenaed by the Committee,” Comer said late Tuesday afternoon. “The FBI’s decision to stiff-arm Congress and hide this information from the American people is obstructionist and unacceptable.”
Comer added, “While I have a call scheduled with FBI Director Wray tomorrow to discuss his response further, the Committee has been clear in its intent to protect Congressional oversight authorities and will now be taking steps to hold the FBI Director in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a lawful subpoena.”
The FBI also released a statement Tuesday, calling Comer’s escalation before the planned Wednesday phone call “unnecessary.”
“The FBI remains committed to cooperating with the Committee in good faith. In a letter to Chairman Comer earlier today, the FBI committed to providing access to information responsive to the Committee’s subpoena in a format and setting that maintains confidentiality and protects important security interests and the integrity of FBI investigations,” the FBI statement said.
“Last week, Director Wray scheduled a telephone call for tomorrow to provide additional details of the FBI’s extraordinary accommodation to satisfy the subpoena request,” it added. “Any discussion of escalation under these circumstances is unnecessary.”
The FBI chief will speak with Wray on Wednesday despite ignoring the Tuesday deadline.
“It shouldn’t have taken the threat of holding FBI Director Wray in contempt for him to finally agree to a phone call that Chairman Comer and Sen. Grassley requested over a week ago,” a spokesperson for Comer’s committee told the Washington Examiner last week. “The FBI must produce the unclassified record by May 30, or the Oversight Committee will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings. The subpoenaed record is already two weeks past due.”
Comer had sent the FBI a letter in early May telling the bureau that “whistleblower disclosures” indicated that the FBI and Justice Department are “in possession” of an FD-1023 form that describes an “alleged criminal scheme” involving Joe Biden and a foreign national “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” An FD-1023 form is a document the FBI uses to record interviews with a confidential human source.
The GOP chairman described the reasoning behind the subpoena in the May 3 letter sent to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland. The letter was authored jointly with Grassley, who is also investigating Biden family finances linked to China and Ukraine.
“The FBI has continued to tie itself in knots to ignore a legitimate subpoena from Congress, which has a constitutional duty of oversight,” Grassley said last week, adding, “The FBI knows exactly what document Chairman Comer and I are seeking, and if they know us at all, they know we will get it, one way or another.”
Comer fired off a May 3 subpoena to the FBI to hand over “all FD-1023 forms, including within any open, closed, or restricted access case files, created or modified in June 2020, containing the term ‘Biden’, including all accompanying attachments and documents to those FD-1023 forms.” The FBI had until May 10 to turn the document over, but it has repeatedly refused despite Comer meeting with FBI staff on May 15 and May 23.
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Comer last week narrowed the subpoena document request with two new terms: “June 30, 2020” and “five million.” Those terms were a “reference to the amount of money the foreign national allegedly paid to receive the desired policy outcome,” according to Comer’s office.
“Americans deserve the truth, and the Oversight Committee will continue to demand transparency from this nation’s chief law enforcement agency,” Comer said Tuesday.
