FBI tells GOP lawmakers to pound sand on subpoena for Biden ‘criminal scheme’ document

In case you wondering how far the FBI will go to shield President Joe Biden, the bureau has thumbed its nose at Congress and refused to comply with a legally binding subpoena issued by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.)

Comer demanded last week that the FBI produce an informant file in which a confidential source alleges that, as vice president, Biden accepted bribes from a foreign national to influence U.S. policy.

The bureau was given until noon on Wednesday to hand over the file. Instead, Christopher Dunham, FBI acting assistant director for congressional affairs, wrote a six-page reply in which he argued that any information gleaned from a confidential human source is “incomplete” and providing the information would place the informant and the informant’s loved ones “at great risk,” the New York Post reports.

At issue is “an unclassified FD-1023 form,” which Dunham says is a “Confidential Human Source Reporting” form.

Such forms, Dunham explains, are “critical to FBI’s faithful execution of federal law and protection of U.S. national security.”

“An FD-1023 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,” he writes. “Reporting by confidential human sources is one important form of highly sensitive law enforcement information upon which the FBI relies to develop leads, assess the credibility of potential evidence and sources, build investigations, and take action to enforce the criminal law or protect national security. Confidential human sources are therefore critical to the work of FBI as well as other members of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities.”

“As is clear from the name itself, confidentiality is definitional to the FBI’s Confidential Human Source program,” he continues. “Confidential human sources often provide information to the FBI at great risk to themselves and their loved ones. The information they provide also can create significant risks to others who may be referenced in their reporting.”

Besides, Dunham said, just because the file may exist doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

“Information from confidential human sources is unverified and, by definition, incomplete,” Dunham told Comer. “An FD-1023 form documents information as told to a line FBI agent. Recording the information does not validate the information, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI.”

“The mere existence of such a document would establish little beyond the fact that a confidential human source provided information and the FBI recorded it,” he argued. “Indeed, the FBI regularly receives information from sources with significant potential biases, motivations, and knowledge, including drug traffickers, members of organized crime, or even terrorists.”

“We … hope this helps you understand that keeping this kind of source information free from the perception or reality of improper influence — and preventing the redirection of this information for non-law enforcement or non-intelligence uses — is necessary for the FBI’s effective execution of our law enforcement and national security responsibilities,” Dunham concluded.

Rep. Comer called the response “unacceptable.”

“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,” he said, according to The Post.

“We’ve asked the FBI to not only provide this record, but to also inform us what it did to investigate these allegations,” he fumed. “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.”

It was Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) who informed Comer of the existence of the document via a whistleblower’s tip. The Post spoke to Grassley at the Capitol, and he broke the news that the FBI was refusing to comply.

“They didn’t give us the unclassified document. They sent us a five or six-page letter that I haven’t studied thoroughly yet,” he said. “They didn’t dispute that it exists — that the document exists or that it is unclassified … why they haven’t given it, I don’t know.”

As BizPac Review previously reported, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) called the file in question a “smoking gun.”

“I would say that I believe this is the smoking gun, and what did Joe Biden know and when did he know it? And we want the American people to see what he knew and does he even remember any of this that happened? Because I think a lot of Americans feel Republicans are held to one standard and Democrats held to another,” Mace said last week.

“I’ve seen the suspicious activity reports. I’ve read about the prostitution rings,” she stated. “I’ve seen the millions of dollars in shell companies coming and going from our adversaries to nine members of the Biden family. It needs to be investigated.”

At an explosive press conference on Wednesday held just hours before the FBI’s announced it would not be handing over the file, Mace blasted the Department of Justice.

“What we know: Chinese Communist Party money flowed into Biden family bank accounts and they got access they couldn’t otherwise get,” she tweeted following the presser. “The DOJ needs to get off its ass and investigate.”

 

Melissa Fine

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