The FBI is refusing to comply with a subpoena for an informant file, requested by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), alleging the president took bribes while he was vice president.
???@RepJamesComer & @ChuckGrassley reveal the existence of an FBI record alleging then-VP Biden engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national.
According to a whistleblower, this record details an alleged arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.… pic.twitter.com/6yLwPLi8Hw
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) May 3, 2023
Comer issued a legally binding subpoena on May 3 requiring the FBI to turn the file over by noon yesterday. A letter accompanying the subpoena was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The deadline came and went, and rather than turning over the requested document, the FBI replied with a six-page letter giving their reasons for not complying with the subpoena.
“This letter responds to your subpoena, authorized on May 3, 2023, demanding the production of documents within one week. As this was your first communication with the FBI seeking this information, please know that the FBI is committed to beginning the constitutionally mandated accommodation process,” the letter stated.
It continued, “The FBI is committed to working to provide the Committee information necessary for your legitimate oversight interests, while also protecting executive branch confidentiality interests and law enforcement responsibilities. The FBI appreciates this opportunity to inform you of our confidentiality interests so that we can ‘seek optimal accommodation through a realistic evaluation of’ each other’s needs and ‘avoid the polarization of disputes. We are committed to working together through this process.”
According to the New York Post, Comer slammed the FBI’s stonewalling saying, “It’s 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.”
Comer added, “We’ve asked the FBI to not only provide this record, but to also inform us what it did to investigate these allegations. The FBI has failed to do both. The FBI’s position is ‘trust, but you aren’t allowed to verify.’ That is unacceptable. We plan to follow up with the FBI and expect compliance with the subpoena.”
The file being requested is an unclassified FD-1023 form.
According to the six-page letter from the FBI, an FD-1023 form is “one of many forms the FBI uses to collect and catalog information for its law enforcement and national security work. This form is used by FBI agents to record unverified reporting from a confidential human source.”
The specific FD-1023 form being requested was, according to the Post, created or modified in June 2020 which was months before Biden won the election.
The May 3 letter to Garland and Wray stated, “We have received legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures. Based on those disclosures, it has come to our attention that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted, “The American people deserve to know whether their president is a crook,” and expressed his desire for Biden to cooperate with the investigation.
The American people deserve to know whether their president is a crook. Biden should cooperate with investigators if he truly has nothing to hide https://t.co/OANHwXsaPs
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 10, 2023
The White House, however, continues to state that Biden was not aware of or involved in any of Hunter Biden’s business dealings going so far as to say, according to Fox News, “the president never spoke to his son about his business dealings.”
In that Fox News article, White House spokesman Ian Sams called Comer’s handling of the investigation a “shoot-first, figure-it-out later approach to what is clearly an evidence-free, politically-motivated investigation.”
Comer, along with many Republicans, maintain that the Biden family’s overseas business dealings pose a national security risk.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.