Ranking House Oversight Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) requested by letter that information from a June 5 FBI briefing regarding allegations of bribery against President Joe Biden be provided to the entire committee.
The Friday letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, obtained by NBC, requested that the FBI provide information from the June 5 briefing, in which Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Raskin were briefed regarding allegations contained in an FD-1023 form, to the full committee. The ranking member said the briefing included “crucial context.”
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“During the briefing, senior FBI officials answered questions for more than an hour and provided crucial context to understand the Form FD-1023 and the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ),” Raskin wrote in the letter.
“I believe our members would also benefit from the additional, non-classified information provided in the briefing and request that the FBI reiterate this information in writing,” he added.
In the letter, Raskin drew special attention to several revelations from the briefing.
The FD-1023 form contains allegations laid out by a confidential human source in an interview with the FBI regarding conversations the CHS had years earlier, according to Raskin’s letter. Among the allegations are that Biden received money from a Ukrainian energy company as part of a “criminal bribery scheme.”
“The CHS noted that it is not unusual for Ukrainian business executives to brag and show-off and that he could not offer any opinion as to the veracity of the allegations he was relaying,” Raskin wrote in the letter.
Among Raskin’s highlighted points were:
- In January 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr selected Scott Brady, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, to review allegations made by lawyer and politician Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani had alleged that then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden were involved in a corruption scheme involving Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
- Brady led a team of prosecutors and FBI agents in investigating the allegations. The team reviewed suspicious activity reports filed by banks, and it sought out a CHS who had provided information on Burisma related to other situations in the past. The CHS’s June 2020 interview was memorialized in the FD-1023 form.
- Much of the information provided by the CHS had already been provided by Giuliani.
- The investigation was closed after eight months. No outstanding investigative tasks remained. The FBI said that Brady’s investigation turned up insufficient evidence to warrant furthering the investigation. Brady and high-level Justice Department officials agreed with the move.
- At no point in the briefing did the FBI suggest that there is an ongoing investigation into bribery allegations.
“It is deeply concerning that recent public statements are plainly inconsistent with statements made by the FBI in the June 5, 2023, briefing,” Raskin continued.
Raskin and Comer came away from the briefing in question with notably different conclusions. Raskin said the meeting had negated the need for further investigation, and Comer said the meeting proved that there was a need for further investigation.
Oversight Republicans pushed back on Raskin’s claims, calling them lies.
“It doesn’t matter how many times Ranking Member Raskin repeats the lie, it’s still a lie,” Comer said, according to the committee.
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“The information contained in the FBI’s FD-1023 form did not originate with Rudy Giuliani, and as Former Attorney General William Barr has confirmed publicly, the FD-1023 was not closed but rather forwarded to the U.S. Attorney in Delaware for further investigation. In addition, Director Wray himself told Senator Grassley and me directly that the FD-1023 form was related to an ongoing investigation,” he continued.
“The Biden bribery record contains serious allegations, and the American people deserve answers, transparency, and accountability,” Comer said. “The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the facts and ensure accountability for the American people. Democrats’ lies and deterrents will not distract us from this goal.”
