Republican Senators grilled a senior FBI official on Tuesday about a heavily redacted form detailing allegations from an informant about President Joe Biden.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the declassified 1023 form that alleges Ukrainian businessman Mykola Zlochevsky bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter and kept recordings of their conversations.
The FBI form was eventually provided to the House Oversight Committee after it was subpoenaed following FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony last week. However, the document turned over to the House Oversight Committee by FBI Director Christopher Wray was so heavily redacted, even though it was declassified, that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) felt compelled to reveal the incendiary information Monday on the Senate floor.
Abbate’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee the following was combative, as he flatly refused to answer many questions.
Sen. Hawley: "Why don't you just release it? Is it classified?"
FBI Deputy Director Abbate: "The document is not classified."
Sen. Hawley: "Will you commit to releasing this unclassified document that alleges that the President Of the United States has taken $5 million in… pic.twitter.com/RmDTQctaZw
— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) June 13, 2023
“Why did you decide to conceal the information in that revelation to the House Oversight Committee? Why did you redact all of that pertaining to the phone calls?” asked Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
“We often redact documents to protect sources and methods,” was Abbate’s response.
At one point, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked Abbate about the existence of the report alleging a bribery scheme involving Biden.
“Is it true that the FBI has a report making those allegations?” asked the senator.
Abbate would not acknowledge even the basic substance of the report, stating, “I’m just not going to comment on information we’ve received, investigations, or ongoing matters.”
When Cruz followed up with a hypothetical question about his ethical duty to reveal publicly “any evidence of corruption by the president of the United States,” Abatte was cagey in his response.
“This is an area that I’m not going to get into with you, senator,” Abbate said.
This evasiveness by the top two FBI officials was enough for Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) to lambaste the country’s top law enforcement agency on Fox News Wednesday.
“First, the FBI said, well, we can’t even tell you that it exists. And then they said, you can see it, but it has to be redacted. They won’t tell us whether they’ve even investigated the allegations,” said Kennedy.
“For the integrity of the FBI as an institution and the Department of Justice, the two heads need to look the American people in the eye in front of God and country and tell them the truth,” Kennedy demanded.
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