The FBI on Wednesday denied a congressional request for documents pertaining to Joe Biden and alleged criminal activity from his tenure as vice president.
The subpoena to access the documents was first issued on May 3 by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) along with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
In an additional letter, Comer said he received “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures” about an unclassified document detailing “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
He requested FD-1023 forms relating to Biden. In a statement to The Dallas Express, the FBI National Press Office explained that an FD-1023 form “is used by FBI agents to record unverified reporting by a confidential human source.”
Christopher Dunham, FBI acting assistant director of the Office of Congressional Affairs, has issued a letter in response, rejecting the request from the Republican legislators.
“It is critical to the integrity of the entire criminal justice process and to the fulfillment of our law enforcement duties that FBI avoid revealing information — including unverified or incomplete information — that could harm investigations, prejudice prosecutions or judicial proceedings, unfairly violate privacy or reputational interests, or create misimpressions in the public,” he wrote.
Dunham claimed that the form “documents information as told to a line FBI agent … [but] does not validate the information, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI.”
“Often, even confirming the fact of the existence (or nonexistence) of an investigation or a particular piece of investigative information can risk these serious harms,” wrote Dunham.
During his Wednesday testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray declined to confirm whether the FD-1023 report exists.
In a subsequent statement from Comer and Grassley, Comer said it is “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.”
“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,” added Grassley. “So the question remains, what did the FBI do to investigate very serious allegations from an apparent trusted FBI source implicating then-Vice President Biden?”
“The American people pay the FBI’s salaries, and they’re entitled to a fulsome response,” he said.
The Dallas Express contacted the FBI for additional comment but received no response by press time.
