The FBI declined to provide congressional Republicans immediately with a document the lawmakers say outlines an “alleged criminal scheme” involving President Biden and a foreign national, blowing through a Wednesday deadline to produce the unverified information that was subpoenaed by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY). Christopher Dunham, the FBI acting assistant director for congressional affairs, told Comer that the agency “would be pleased to coordinate with your staff to discuss whether and how we can accommodate your request without violating our law enforcement and national security obligations,” reports The Hill. .
Comer said that he planned to follow up with the FBI to compel compliance with the subpoena, setting up more potential battles over production of the document. “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 said. “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.” Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said that a “highly credible” whistleblower had told them that the FBI possessed a FD-1023 form — which documents unverified information gathered from confidential sources — detailing an “alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” Comer immediately subpoenaed the document. “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,” the FBI said. “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.”