By Savannah Hulsey Pointer
FBI Director Christopher Wray has consented to bring a subpoenaed document from the investigation into the Biden family to Capitol Hill for legislators to examine.
A spokesperson for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) confirmed to The Epoch Times on June 2 that the lawmaker would be allowed to review the documents on June 5.
Ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) will also be able to review the document, CNN reported.
The document in question, an FD-1023, allegedly contains uncorroborated allegations that President Joe Biden, while serving as vice president, engaged in a bribery conspiracy to alter United States policy in exchange for monetary gain to his family’s businesses.
An FBI whistleblower informed Congress about the document and expressed concern that the allegations were never thoroughly investigated.
Comer and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley demanded to see the document, and Comer subsequently issued a subpoena.
Comer announced during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on June 1 that he was drafting legislation to hold Wray in contempt of Congress. He spoke about a conversation he and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had with Wray and the bureau’s lack of compliance with his congressional subpoena.
Hannity explained that his understanding of a 1023 form is that it is “an allegation,” and in this case, Comer and Grassley believed it was a credible allegation based on the individual whistleblower who brought it to the lawmakers’ attention.
The Fox News host also questioned why the lawmakers did not take advantage of the FBI director’s offer to see the document in a secured location.
Comer clarified that the previous offer would only allow the lawmakers access to a redacted version of the document, which Comer said is not sufficient to support his committee’s oversight responsibility.
Comer said that his experience with getting documents from the FBI was that they were “all black,” indicating that too much information was redacted for the document to be helpful.
“We knew what was in the 1023 form,” Comer said of his conversation with the FBI director. “Until we told Director Wray that, he never even admitted that the existed.”
Speaking to the reason his committee is adamant about having access to the document, Comer said, “The reason we find this allegation credible [is] not only because of the credibility of the whistleblower but because we’ve seen a pattern of Joe Biden when he was vice president, leaving a country after he talks about foreign aid and foreign policy, and his family members start receiving payments …”
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the FBI on May 3 for a file containing allegations that a whistleblower linked Biden to a “criminal scheme” involving money for policy decisions while he was vice president.
“We have received legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures,” Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a letter (pdf) to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland on May 3.
“Based on those disclosures, it has come to our attention that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
Contempt Threat
Earlier this week, Wray verified the existence of a document, according to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Wray told the panel that the document was authentic and offered to let them examine it, but the document had not been provided to the Oversight Committee as a whole.
Comer had given Wray until May 30 to deliver the document or face contempt of Congress charges, but the FBI missed the deadline. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Cali.) said he was prepared to hold Wray in contempt if the deadline was not met, lending credibility to the threat.
McCarthy suggested that the FBI’s continued refusal to turn over the document suggests that the agency seems to view itself as above Congress.
“Comer subpoenaed the document,” the speaker said on May 30. “We have jurisdiction over the FBI, which they seem to act like we do not.”
The White House has criticized Comer’s investigation into the matter, calling it a “silly charade” and “yet another reminder that his so-called ‘investigations’ are political stunts not meant to get information but to spread thin innuendo and falsehoods to attack the president.”
The FBI has maintained that it’s committed to “cooperating with the Committee in good faith.” A spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times that the agency has endeavored to comply with the subpoena in a way that “maintains confidentiality and protects important security interests and the integrity of FBI investigations.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the FBI for comment.
Joseph Lord contributed to this report.
