Global Courant
The FBI has offered to allow all members of the House Oversight Committee to see a redacted document that GOP Chairman James Comer claims describes a bribery allegation made against Joe Biden when he was vice president, a source familiar with the negotiations said. the subpoena from the panel to acquire the document.
The offer of a briefing to the full oversight committee, first reported by CNNcame as the panel prepares to convene later this week to consider a measure to contempt FBI Director Christopher Wray before Congress for failing to comply with his subpoena to turn over the document.
Late Wednesday, Comer, R-Ky., announced he would cancel the meeting to consider the contempt resolution.
“The business meeting of the full committee to vote on Contempt of Congress for Director Wray has now been removed from Thursday’s schedule,” he said.
The top Democrat on the committee, Representative Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in a statement: “Chairman Comer’s acceptance of these further adjustments comes after he spent weeks attacking the FBI, despite his extraordinary efforts to persuade the committee’s Republicans to information they claim to be seeking.”
Comer, R-Ky., released the contempt resolution against Wray on Wednesday, even after the FBI allowed him and top member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to review the document on Capitol Hill this week.
Comer subpoenaed the FBI last month for the document, called an FD-1023 form, that he and Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, claim “describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreigner involving the exchange of money for policy decisions.” Comer has said the plan is a $5 million payment of a foreigner in exchange for a policy result.
The FBI declined to provide the document, saying it is bound by Justice Department policy, which “strictly limits when and how confidential human source information can be provided outside the FBI.”
Comer then vowed to continue holding Wray in contempt of Congress unless he turned over the document. In a phone call with Comer, Grassley and Wray last week, Wray had offered to allow the commission’s leaders to view the document “in a secure manner,” the FBI said.
On Monday, the FBI notified Comer and Raskin on Capitol Hill to give them a chance to view the document. A senior law enforcement official said last week that the FBI would redact information that could reveal the source’s identity.
Speaking to reporters outside the secure briefing site after Monday’s briefing, Comer said the “FBI again refused to give the unclassified record to custody” from the commission and that the panel plans to consider the contempt order Thursday.
“FBI officials have confirmed that the unclassified FBI-generated record has not been refuted and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation,” he said Monday.
Although the House has canceled votes for the rest of the week, Comer said Thursday’s hearing will go ahead after the conservatives closed the floor. “It’s still going on,” he said as he left the Capitol on Wednesday evening. “But serious negotiations are taking place.”
In a statement Earlier on Wednesday, Comer said the FBI failed to comply with its subpoena, accusing the agency of “covering up by leaking a false story to the media.”
“The case is not closed as the White House, the Democrats and the FBI would like the American people to believe,” he said. “The FBI created this record based on information provided by a credible informant who has worked with the FBI for over a decade and has paid six figures.”
Comer claimed the unnamed informant had “firsthand conversations with the stranger” who allegedly bribed Biden and that former Attorney General William Barr said the report was given to the U.S. attorney in Delaware for that agency’s investigation of the Biden family. Business transactions.
“Americans have lost faith in the FBI’s ability to impartially enforce the law and demand answers, transparency and accountability,” said Comer. “The Oversight Committee must follow the facts for the American people and ensure that the federal government is held accountable.”
The FBI and Scott Brady, then U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, reviewed the allegation when it was made in 2020, as well as other information about Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine, a senior law enforcement official said last week. However, the allegation of bribery was not substantiated, the official said.
White House spokesman Ian Sams denounced the commission’s investigation.
“Instead of devoting their time and energy to the things that matter most to the American people, such as cutting costs, creating jobs, or strengthening health care, Congressional Republicans, led by the President of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer and his committee, For six months we have wasted taxpayers’ money staging politically motivated stunts disguised as ‘investigations,'” Sams said in a statement.
Reached for comment Wednesday, the Democrats Oversight Committee referred NBC News to Raskin’s statement following this week’s FBI briefing: “Comer’s actions prove that his interest in issuing this subpoena was never about seeking the truth, but always about weaponizing the powers of this committee to contempt Director Wray as part of MAGA Republicans’ efforts to discredit and ultimately “dismantle” the FBI.
Representatives from the Justice Department and FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FBI has said in recent statements that it was cooperating with Comer’s request and that “the escalation to a contemptuous mood is unwarranted under the circumstances.”
The White House has also criticized the committee’s investigations, arguing that they are politically motivated and designed to harm Biden’s re-election chances.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told NBC News Wednesday that the full House would pass the contemptuous resolution against Wray “immediately after” the committee proposed the measure.
