McCarthy to Contact Wray Over FBI’s Failure to Provide Alleged Biden Bribery Scheme Document to Congress.

House Speaker Demands FBI Compliance with Subpoena

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is not backing down after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declined to comply with a House Oversight and Accountability Committee subpoena for a document that allegedly linked then-vice president Joe Biden to a pay-to-play bribery scheme.

“That’s unacceptable. I’m going to call Director Wray today because we have oversight of the FBI. We have the right,” McCarthy said on the Fox News program “Fox & Friends” on May 11.

Whistleblower Disclosures

Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), revealed in a May 3 letter that they received “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.” The whistleblower’s tip indicated the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI possessed an unclassified document 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,” they said in the letter to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“This specific document goes into great detail, the pay-for-play agreement between Joe Biden as vice president, and the policy outcomes that this foreign national wanted,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, previously told NTD.

Subpoena and Response

On May 3, Comer filed a subpoena to Wray seeking an internal form, called an FD-1023, and gave a week for the agency to produce it. In response, Christopher Dunham, the acting assistant director for congressional affairs, wrote a letter (pdf) to Comer on May 10 explaining the FBI’s “confidentiality interests.” But the agency didn’t turn over any document the House panel requested.

Dunham said the FD-1023 “is used by FBI agents to record unverified reporting from a confidential human source.” The DOJ policy, he noted, “strictly limits when and how confidential human source information can be provided outside of the FBI.”

Comer said the response indicates that the document exists.

“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 in a statement released Wednesday. “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 congressman pledged to follow up with the FBI, without providing further details.

McCarthy said he would have a call with Director Wray to discuss the matter further.