The FBI has provided the House Oversight Committee with access to a form FD-1023 documenting an informant’s report implicating President Joe Biden in a bribery scheme. FBI Director Christopher Wray had initially refused full-committee disclosure, citing concerns about informant confidentiality and an ongoing investigation. However, the bureau’s last-minute concession prevented a contempt-of-Congress citation of Wray, which Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) had scheduled for the committee’s consideration. The informant, who has provided reliable information for about ten years, did not have direct interactions with Biden. Rather, the informant related an unidentified foreign person’s claim to have participated with Biden in a bribery scheme during his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration.
Comer has issued a statement indicating that the allegations against Biden are not closed and that the document’s allegations closely track the Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes. The FBI has confirmed that the investigation to which the FD-1023 is pertinent is ongoing, further undercutting claims that it was closed three years ago due to insufficient evidence.
It is unclear whether the full committee will be given a copy of the document, as members were only allowed to review it under the FBI’s supervision. In an earlier effort to stave off contempt proceedings, Wray had FBI agents bring the document to Capitol Hill for Comer and the committee’s ranking member, Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), to review. Raskin attempted to tie the informant’s information to Rudy Giuliani, whom Democrats have tried to discredit, and portray it as Russian disinformation.
The FBI also worked to suppress derogatory information about Biden on social media by suggesting that its dissemination could be a Russian attempt to interfere in the 2020 election. The ongoing investigation of the Bidens in Delaware appears to be moribund, with no charges filed despite strong evidence supporting some of the allegations against Hunter Biden. Critical questions remain unanswered, but the House Oversight Committee has finally gained access to the information it subpoenaed from Wray a month ago, and the director will not be held in contempt.
