(Daily Wire) House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced Tuesday he will move forward with holding FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.
The top GOP lawmaker announced in an afternoon statement that the bureau failed to comply with his subpoena requesting documentation believed to contain allegations of a criminal “bribery” scheme involving President Joe Biden.
“Today, the FBI informed the Committee that it will not provide the unclassified documents subpoenaed by the Committee,” Comer said. “The FBI’s decision to stiff-arm Congress and hide this information from the American people is obstructionist and unacceptable.”
Though Comer noted that he has a call with Wray scheduled for Wednesday, the chairman stressed the House Oversight Committee “has been clear in its intent to protect Congressional oversight authorities and will now be taking steps to hold the FBI Director in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a lawful subpoena.”
The chairman said whistleblower disclosures led him and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to believe the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI have an unclassified FD-1023 form describing the alleged scheme involving Biden, dating back to his time as vice president, and a foreign national. Comer initially sent the subpoena on May 3 with a May 10 deadline, but later extended it to Tuesday.
This particular FD-1023 form may reference some variant of “five million” and “June 30, 2020,” Comer wrote in a letter to Wray last week. “These terms relate to the date on the FD-1023 form and its reference to the amount of money the foreign national allegedly paid to receive the desired policy outcome,” he added.
The FBI responded to Comer in a letter, which was published by POLITICO, saying in part that officials at the bureau have “identified additional information that we are prepared to offer the Committee as an extraordinary accommodation.”
Wray “looks forward to discussing how we plan to make that information available to the Committee during your call tomorrow,” said acting Assistant Director for Congressional Affairs Christopher Dunham.
The FBI additionally provided a statement to The Daily Wire responding to Comer’s statement.
“The FBI remains committed to cooperating with the Committee in good faith. In a letter to Chairman Comer earlier today, the FBI committed to providing access to information responsive to the Committee’s subpoena in a format and setting that maintains confidentiality and protects important security interests and the integrity of FBI investigations,” the FBI said.
“Last week, Director Wray scheduled a telephone call for tomorrow to provide additional details of the FBI’s extraordinary accommodation to satisfy the subpoena request,” the FBI added. “Any discussion of escalation under these circumstances is unnecessary.”
