FBI Director Christopher Wray will testify to the House Oversight Committee on May 31 about an internal document purportedly showing that President Joe Biden engaged in an alleged criminal scheme with a foreign national.
The testimony will come as Republicans continue to face pushback from the agency in their effort to obtain the document, which the FBI has refused to share on several occasions despite a congressional subpoena requesting the document.
Specifically, the document alleges that Biden took a bribe from a foreign national while serving as vice president.
In a May 3 letter, Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed that they received “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures” that the FBI possessed an unclassified record that “describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-vice president Joe Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
Comer said after a May 22 meeting that the FBI had again refused demands to turn it over.
In response to the FBI’s continued refusals, Comer has threatened to hold Wray in contempt of Congress. Wray’s agreement to testify, Comer said, doesn’t change that fact if the agency refuses to turn over the document.
“I received word that the FBI director is committed to meet with me next week in Washington and we can discuss this,” Comer said on a May 24 Fox News appearance. “But, nothing’s going to change with respect to holding him in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t turn over the document.”
Comer said that the FBI’s continued refusal to comply with the subpoena demonstrates a lack of respect for Congress.
“They don’t respect anyone in Congress,” Comer said. “They’ve been able to get away with this for a long time. The media continues to turn a blind eye. The Senate Republicans continue to fund the FBI. So why would you change your business model when you’re getting everything you want?”
The key to success, Comer said, is to gain more Senate support. Republicans in the upper chamber have largely been less critical of the FBI than their lower chamber counterparts.
“What we’re going to have to do in this House is demand that the Senators get our backs—like they are doing as we speak with these debt ceiling negotiations—and hold their budget hostage until they get new leadership at the FBI or they produce the documents that we want.”
Democrats have dismissed Comer’s inquiry—and larger GOP inquiries into the FBI and DOJ—as partisan.
The White House called Comer’s inquiry an “unfounded politically-motivated [attack].”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) echoed this criticism, accusing Comer of “recycling unsubstantiated claims.” He called the inquiry “a baseless partisan stunt.”
The confrontation comes as House Republicans ramp up their investigations into allegations of “serious abuses” by the FBI and DOJ, mounting a probe into the weaponization of the federal government.
One whistleblower told the House Judiciary Committee that the agency had become “enveloped in politicization and weaponization.”
Among other charges, whistleblower reports claim that the FBI has targeted pro-life and Christian communities, creating a “threat tag” for these groups.
In 2021, a required public audit found the FBI had abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to carry out more than 3.3 million illegal queries of American citizens.
In another case, the FBI allegedly aided and abetted criminal behavior. As many as 12 FBI agents allegedly participated in a 2021 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, masterminding and encouraging other men to carry out the plan.
The FBI came under even more scrutiny in the wake of the agency mounting a raid on the home of former President Donald Trump, an unprecedented move. The raid allegedly was due to Trump’s possession of classified documents.
Many whistleblowers claim that they faced retaliation for their disclosures from the agency, a charge the FBI has denied in emailed comments to The Epoch Times.
Amid these allegations, Wray has become a key GOP target.
After announcing his 2024 presidential bid on May 24, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’d remove Wray if elected president.
“I would not keep Chris Wray as director of the FBI,” he told Fox News. “There’ll be a new one on day one.”
“The DOJ and FBI have lost their way,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis agreed with other Republicans that the agency had been “weaponized against Americans who think like me and you. And I think they’ve become very partisan.”
On March 17, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced articles of impeachment against Wray, accusing him of using “Soviet-style tactics” to target normal Americans who disagreed with President Joe Biden’s policies.
“Director Wray has failed to uphold his oath and has instead overseen a denigration of the principles of our democratic republic by utilizing the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Federal police force to punish or intimidate anyone who questions or opposes the current regime,” Greene wrote in the articles of impeachment.
If Comer were to move ahead with his threat to hold Wray in contempt, he would first need to win committee support to advance the criminal charge recommendation. If advanced through committee, it would go to the House floor for a vote.
Ultimately, it would be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue criminal charges.
In replies to Epoch Times inquiries about these allegations, the FBI has repeatedly denied misconduct, saying that the agency prides itself on nonpartisan behavior.
Dorothy Li contributed to this report.
