House Oversight Chair Initiates Contempt of Congress Process for FBI Director Wray, Sets Hearing Date
Contempt of Congress hearings against FBI Director Christopher Wray will begin Thursday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Monday.
Last month, Comer, a Kentucky Republican, and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa demanded via subpoena that the FBI produce what’s known as an 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.”
Last week, the FBI notified Comer that it would bring the document to the Capitol where it could be reviewed in a secure space. On Monday, comer said that the gesture did not meet the needs of his panel.
🚨🚨🚨
The FBI confirmed the unclassified record alleging then-VP Biden engaged in a $5 million bribery scheme is from a highly credible informant & being used in an ongoing investigation.
The FBI refused to hand over the doc.
I will hold Director Wray in contempt of Congress pic.twitter.com/2p1fNdmBJ1
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) June 5, 2023
“Today, FBI officials confirmed that the unclassified, FBI-generated record has not been disproven and stated several times the information contained within it is currently being used in an ongoing investigation,” Comer said, according to a news release on the website of the Oversight Committee.
“The confidential human source who provided information about then-Vice President Biden being involved in a criminal bribery scheme is a trusted, highly credible informant who has been used by the FBI for years. These are facts and no amount of spin, and frankly lies, from the White House or Congressional Democrats can change this information,” he said.
Comer said he will keep probing to learn the truth.
Why won’t the FBI just turn over the document?
What are they hiding? https://t.co/sTlBFyToOL
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 5, 2023
“At the briefing, the FBI again refused to hand over the unclassified record to the custody of the House Oversight Committee and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,” he said.
“Given the severity and complexity of the allegations contained within this record, Congress must investigate further. Americans have lost trust in the FBI’s ability to enforce the law impartially and demand answers, transparency, and accountability. The Oversight Committee must follow the facts for the American people and ensure the federal government is held accountable,” he said.
Fox News has reported that it was told by a source it did not name that the source of the document was a “pre-existing” FBI source who has been “found to be highly credible” and has been used in investigations that have nothing to do with the Biden family.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who as the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee was part of the briefing, said the source may be credible but the information reported came from “a conversation with someone else.”
“The work we’re talking about is secondhand hearsay,” Raskin said. “And so it’s not the source, the confidential source, who is the origin of the particular claim … that that confidential source is the person who reported it. That someone else was saying this.”
The FBI defended its actions.
“By offering to provide access to the requested document in combination with a briefing to offer context, the FBI has agreed in good faith to give the Committee all of the information it originally asked for and more,” the FBI wrote in a statement, according to Newsmax.
“The commonsense protections the FBI has requested to maintain the confidentiality of that sensitive information are routinely employed both in response to congressional requests and in court in criminal proceedings to protect the physical safety of sources and the integrity of investigations,” the statement said.
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