House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said he expects the FBI to show him additional informant reports concerning bribery allegations against President Joe Biden.
In a tweet on Monday, Comer said the FBI told him there are more FD-1023 records beyond what the bureau has allowed him and members of his committee to view last week. “I will be granted access to these additional docs,” Comer said.
Former AG Barr has discredited Democrats’ lies that the investigation into the Biden bribery FD-1023 form had been ended.
Now, the FBI has told me there are 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 1023 forms. I will be granted access to these additional docs.@GOPoversight will get answers. @GowdyAmerica pic.twitter.com/0VasFUNZIz
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) June 12, 2023
The document which the oversight panel has already seen talks about an alleged $5 million bribery scheme between Biden at a time when he was vice president and a foreign national, according to Comer.
Last week, Comer announced that he was nixing a planned vote to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena after the bureau agreed to let all members of his committee see the unclassified file dated back to the summer of 2020. After viewing the document, GOP members of the House Oversight Committee revealed the matter is linked to Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, which employed Biden’s son, Hunter, on its board for several years.
Comer told Fox News on Sunday that when he viewed the file alongside Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the panel, he “realized that there were two footnotes in there that referenced other 1023s.” Comer also told Newsmax the footnotes date back to 2017. A congressional source told The Daily Wire on Monday that the oversight panel is working with the FBI to schedule a time this week to view the other FD-1023 records.
Republicans are raising concerns about potential influence peddling linked to multiple countries, including Ukraine and Romania. They have pointed to suspicious transactions involving millions of dollars funneled through banks and shell companies linked to members of Biden’s family as evidence of corruption.
While the GOP-led oversight panel has said its investigation into the informant’s claims may inform legislative reforms to strengthen disclosure requirements, Democrats and the White House have dismissed the inquiry as being politically motivated. When asked last week by a reporter to respond to corruption allegations raised by Republicans, Biden called the claims “a bunch of malarkey.”
Comer has stressed the bribery allegations come from a trusted FBI source, but questions remain about the reliability of the informant’s report to the bureau and the consequences of disclosing it publicly.
The FBI told The Daily Wire an FD–1023 form is used by its agents to record “unverified reporting” by a confidential human source. Revealing such information, the FBI added, “could harm investigations, prejudice prosecutions or judicial proceedings, unfairly violate privacy or reputations, create misimpressions in the public, or potentially identify individuals who provide information to law enforcement, placing their physical safety at risk.”
Though Raskin says the Department of Justice closed an assessment into the bribery allegations, Comer said the information is “currently being used in an ongoing investigation.” Hunter Biden’s financial affairs, among other issues, are under investigation by U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, where former Attorney General William Barr says he relayed information from the confidential human source.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), a member of the oversight panel, tweeted on Monday that the FBI needs to publicly release the document, warning that Wray may yet be held in contempt if the bureau refuses.