WASHINGTON—House Republicans appear split on whether to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee that seeks a document with whistleblower allegations that now-President Joe Biden received a bribe from a foreign official.
In a May 3 letter to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the Oversight Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote that they “have received legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.
“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. It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.”
The May 3 subpoena required the FBI to hand over any FD-1023 forms—which note information from confidential human sources—with the word “Biden” in them.
The FBI refused to comply with the subpoena’s May 10 deadline.
“It’s clear from the FBI’s response that the unclassified record the Oversight Committee subpoenaed exists, but they are refusing to provide it to the Committee. We’ve asked the FBI to not only provide this record, but to also inform us what it did to investigate these allegations,” said Comer in a May 10 statement. “The FBI has failed to do both. The FBI’s position is ‘trust, but you aren’t allowed to verify.’ That is unacceptable. We plan to follow up with the FBI and expect compliance with the subpoena.”
“While the FBI has failed to produce the specific document by the subpoena deadline, their offer to provide an accommodation process in response to our legitimate request indicates the document is real,” said Grassley in a statement.
