After being briefed on and viewing a document alleging President Joe Biden was involved in a $5 million bribery scandal when he was vice president on Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said he would move forward with holding FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.
Comer issued a subpoena in partnership with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on May 3, demanding access to the FBI-generated FD-1023 form they say alleges an exchange of money between Biden and a foreign national that could have influenced U.S. policy decisions. Comer was able to view the document along with House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) at Monday’s briefing. But, the FBI refused to hand over the document alleging the bribery scandal to the full House Oversight Committee, Comer said, and therefore he will now start the process of holding the agency’s director in contempt.
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“Given the severity and complexity of the allegations contained within this record, Congress must investigate further,” Comer said in a statement. “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.”
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told CNN the full House would hold a vote on the contempt charges against Wray after the Oversight Committee approves the resolution.
“The FBI has continually demonstrated its commitment to accommodate the committee’s request, including by producing the document in a reading room at the U.S. Capitol,” a spokesperson for the bureau said in a statement. “This commonsense safeguard is often employed in response to congressional requests and in court proceedings to protect important concerns, such as the physical safety of sources and the integrity of investigations. The escalation to a contempt vote under these circumstances is unwarranted.”
Talking with reporters following the briefing from the bureau, Comer said the FBI-generated form had not been disproven and is currently being used in an investigation. The source who provided the information about Biden’s bribery allegations is a “trusted, highly credible informant” who the FBI has used for over 10 years.
The claims made in the document suggest a “pattern of bribery” in which payments from a foreign national were made through multiple shell bank accounts, Comer said. He did not answer repeated questions about what country the foreign national is from.
Raskin downplayed the significance of the document and said he was unsure of Comer’s claim that the document was being used in an active investigation.
“I must have missed that because I’ve not heard that this is part of any ongoing investigation,” Raskin told reporters after the briefing.
While the source of the information is credible, Raskin said the information is not first-hand; rather, it is “secondhand hearsay” because it was heard from another person and then reported to the FBI. He said he believes Republicans on the committee want the document for political purposes.
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“I noticed that the former president’s lawyers are today in Washington meeting at the Department of Justice about the very serious allegations that the former president took government documents,” Raskin said. “In the meantime, we’re involved in what I see is a huge distraction, which is trying to get contempt charges brought, for the first time in American history, against the director of the FBI.”
The document was several pages long, with certain names and identifying information being redacted throughout it, Raskin said.
Jerry Dunleavy contributed to this report.
