ANALYSIS – FBI Director Christopher Wray has steadfastly refused to provide the House Oversight and Accountability Committee an internal Bureau document that alleges Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe from Chinese sources.
The committee issued a subpoena for it a while ago. Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has said he learned about the allegations from a whistleblower whom he declined to identify but has described as “very credible.”
With the committee's deadline passing, Comer has said he will seek to hold Wray in contempt of Congress, rejecting Wray's offer to allow lawmakers to view the FD-1023 form in a secure location instead of handing over the document.
A contempt vote would be the most significant confrontation between House Republicans and federal law enforcement since the GOP took control of Congress in January.
Wray insists that the FD-1023 form contains unverified claims from a single confidential human source (CHS), and that turning it over is irresponsible. Sources need to know their identities will be protected.
And allegations shouldn't be publicized without being corroborated.
Wray is right.
In the past neither party would push much on an issue like this because they understood that need. But they also trusted the Bureau to be nonpartisan.
As National Review notes:
…the mere fact that a CHS may have alleged that Biden took part in a bribery scheme doesn't mean it happened. It can't be dismissed out of hand — there's too much indication of Biden's sleazy self-dealing and outright lying for that. But people in positions of authority get falsely accused of wrongdoing all the time. The FBI rightly keeps such allegations under wraps because those people are presumed innocent and the bureau can't investigate without being discrete. Congress has traditionally given the FBI a wide berth because lawmakers know secrecy is a necessity for competent investigations — and it has assumed that the FBI is competent and non-partisan.
Unfortunately, those days are gone, and the FBI director can't decide what part of a congressional subpoena to honor or reject. Wray has no legal basis to keep it hidden.
And due to the recent history of partisanship and politicization at the Bureau, most egregiously the Trump-Russiagate hoax, this is only part of a much bigger problem.
The Bureau can no longer be trusted to be fair and apolitical. As National Review explains:
[The FBI] is a contented cog of the progressive administrative state. In the Obama years, it was put in the service of the Democratic Party. It marched to President Obama's beat, whitewashed and abetted Hillary Clinton's malevolence, undertook to destroy Donald Trump's presidency, spent years covering its tracks, and insulated his 2020 opponent from scrutiny. It has spent the Biden years helping Democrats craft a political narrative of a nation besieged by white-supremacist domestic terrorism — all the while slow-walking the investigation of the Biden family's influence-peddling business.
National Review continues:
[FBI] abuses have proceeded under Wray's stewardship — the FBI's (a) illegal surveillance under FISA; (b) general participation in the suppression of political speech on social media; (c) specific complicity in the Democrats' and the intelligence community's suppression of the Biden influence-peddling scandal; (d) collaboration in the Democrats' crafting of a political narrative that the country is overrun by white-supremacist domestic terrorists; and (e) retaliation against whistleblower agents who've reported to Congress about some of these issues (at least according to three of those agents, who testified under oath at a recent House hearing).
So, while normally, I would be understanding of the director's arguments and attempts to limit dissemination of a form that could expose investigative sources and methods, in this case the FBI simply can't be trusted.
It needs to turn over the document to the committee, with minimal redactions, or Wray should be held in contempt. This is about a much bigger problem.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Excellent commentary. I hope Wray does as he said recently and take the FD-1023 to the House on Monday and allow some Congressmen to see the document. The most upsetting aspect to the FBI (and other departments of our government) is the uneven handling of Democrats and Biden vs. Republicans and Trump. Any whistleblower or complaint about Trump was highly publicized and taken as the absolute truth and the opposite is happening with Biden.
Didn’t they find Eric Holder in contempt of Congress when he refused to provide documents associated with Fast and Furious, the (purposefully) botched gun running scheme? What happened to him? Nothing. Same thing here – Merrick Garland would have to prosecute him. You think that’s happening?
Why isn’t director Chris Wray prosecuted for fraud for covering up Joe Biden’s criminal history as well as that of his traitorous son?
Wray looks a lot like a member of a conspiracy that committed some crimes, but all high ranking Democrats are presumed innocent until proven guilty and then ruled innocent anyway. James Comey read on TV a list of crimes that had been committed by Hillary, and then said there was nothing there.
I don’t know who sends me this crap. Keep your delusions to yourself Paul.
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!!!!!
IT SIMPLY CANNOT BE MORE OBVIOUS, EVEN TO GULLIBLE LIBS/LEFTIES/ETC AMERICANS, THAT WRAY/FBI ARE TRYING DESPERATELY TO PROTECT THE SICKOS WHO ARE DESPERATELY TRYING TO PROTECT THE BIDEN CRIME SYNDICATE FAMILY.
AND WHAT ARE DECENT AMERICAN CITIZENS GOING TO DO ABOUT THAT?
PLEASE, LORD GOD, SAVE US FROM OUR EGOTISM.
So Is the document Proof of Bribery or just an Accusation? Who can be trusted to tell the truth? If the Document is not classified, why redact it?
Why does the FBI withhold evidence that they claim is not proof and why haven’t they investigated it to prove their claim? Many questions without solid answers, just much “Dancing Around” with no music! Excuses are just “Previous Failures”
Wray is not right and if they have failed to corroborate this with it being more than 5 years old that is what is irresponsible.
Wray needs to be shown the door….to his prison cell along with Garland and the rest.
YES, Mr. Crespo! If Wray wishes to uphold the sacrosanctity of Biden’s Executive Privilege of confidentiality, then a just question to ask is: why was such privilege not upheld in the case of President Donald Trump? Because Emperor Balack Obama saturated all,levels of government with loyalist Marxist drones and goons who knew exactly what to do without the issue of direct orders.
Will the entire document be revealed today? No. This is but one more step in the game. It will be censored or something so the kabuki dance will continue. I believe that the Republican party has not a person who knows how to play hardball with the courage to strike the enemy.