Comer: FBI’s Wray Contempt of Congress Hearing Planned for Thursday

The FBI refused to turn over the unclassified whistleblower document Monday to House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky.

The July 30, 2020 document is purported to allege a $5 million bribery scheme on behalf then-Vice President Joe Biden and his family with an “adversarial” foreign country.

After Monday’s FBI stiff-arm of oversight, Comer announced there is a House hearing planned Thursday to weigh holding FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.

Comer made the announcement in a Capitol Hill news conference outside the secure information facility, where he was shown but not given the document, allegedly because it is a key piece of “an ongoing investigation.”

“Today FBI officials confirmed the unclassified FBI generated record has not been disproven and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation,” Comer said in a statement after the secured viewing of the document.

“The confidential human source, who provided information about then-Vice President Biden being involved in a criminal bribery scheme, is a trusted, highly credible informant who has been used by the FBI for over 10 years, and has been paid over six figures.

“These are facts and no amount of spin, and frankly lies, from White House or congressional Democrats can change this information.

“The FBI again refused to hand over the unclassified record to the custody of the House Oversight Committee — and we will now initiate contempt of Congress hearings this Thursday.”

Comer said it is his assumption that investigation is being conducted in Biden’s home state of Delaware.

FBI has said it would produce the document in a secure location inside the U.S. Capitol for Comer and the panel’s ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

At issue is an internal FBI document known as an FD-1023, which agents use to record unverified tips and information they receive from confidential human sources. The FBI says such documents can contain uncorroborated and incomplete information, and that documenting the tip does not validate it.

“By offering to provide access to the requested document in combination with a briefing to offer context, the FBI has agreed in good faith to give the Committee all of the information it originally asked for and more,” the FBI said. “The commonsense protections the FBI has requested to maintain the confidentiality of that sensitive information are routinely employed both in response to congressional requests and in court in criminal proceedings to protect the physical safety of sources and the integrity of investigations.”

Comer responded to the FBI concession by suggesting it would not be sufficient to prevent him from moving forward with contempt, saying “anything short” of producing the document to the committee would not be in compliance with the subpoena. A contempt of Congress charge would require a full committee vote before going to the House floor.

Comer subpoenaed Wray earlier this month seeking a specific FBI form.

In a May 3 letter to Wray with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Comer said, “it has come to our attention” the bureau has such a document that “describes an alleged criminal scheme” involving Biden and a foreign national “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” when Biden was vice president and includes “a precise description” about it.

The lawmakers used the word “alleged” three times in the opening paragraph of the letter and offered no evidence of the veracity of the accusations or any details about what they contend are “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.”

The White House has called the subpoena effort further evidence of how congressional Republicans long “have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks” against the Biden family “without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.