WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) on Friday again demanded that FBI Director Christopher Wray hand over an alleged informant file that claims President Biden accepted bribes while vice president — rejecting the bureau’s insinuation last week that the details are already public.
“The FBI’s delay in producing a single FD-1023 form is unacceptable,” Comer wrote to Wray — more than a week after the FBI flouted the committee’s subpoena.
The Oversight Committee is pursuing a wide-ranging probe of the Biden family’s businesses.
It also is demanding the names of people who bought Hunter’s novice artworks through Manhattan gallery owner Georges Berges, who has refused to comply with Comer’s request for buyer information — setting up another battle for records.
Hunter launched his art career around the time his dad took office as president and has sought as much as $500,000 for his beginner works.
The White House arranged for the buyers’ identities to be “anonymous” — supposedly to prevent influence-peddling, though ethics experts have countered that the lack of transparency could make the potential for corruption even worse.
A subpoena has not yet been issued to Berges but is likely to come unless he voluntarily cooperates.
In terms of Comer and the FBI, the bureau told him May 10 that it wouldn’t turn over the document because of source protection concerns and the fact that informant tips aren’t always reliable, adding that “contemporaneous public materials cite prior letters and public releases that suggest a significant amount of information is already available.”
Comer, shedding new light on the substance of the bribery allegation, wrote to Wray, “To the Committee’s knowledge, the substance of the information contained in the FD-1023 form has not been provided in any of the materials cited by the FBI or publicly reported. And even if it had been, that would not excuse the FBI’s legal duty to comply with the subpoena.”
The Kentucky Republican and other officials are aware of the substance of the informant’s complaint but have not publicly disclosed many details — spurring journalists to pore over already public claims of malfeasance against the Biden family.
The existence of the alleged informant file said to be created or modified in June 2020, was relayed by a whistleblower to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who alerted Comer.
One source told The Post that the bribery claim is not believed to be related to China, where the Biden family had two major business ventures, though those dealings often involved third countries, leaving open some tangential connection.
First son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden also had dealings in Mexico, Romania, Russia and Ukraine while their powerful relative was vice president.
Congress has the power to cut funding to federal agencies or use litigation to enforce subpoenas. The Republican-led House of Representatives also could move to hold Wray in contempt or begin impeachment proceedings in an effort to apply pressure.
Comer on Friday laid out some of the behind-the-scenes wranglings since the FBI balked at the subpoena — indicating in his letter to Wray that the bureau had offered a briefing for next week on “confidential human source reporting,” though it appears that discussion would not delve into the substance of the bribery claim.
“In lieu of producing the subpoenaed document, FBI staff proposed a second meeting with different FBI employees to provide a briefing regarding confidential human source reporting. Committee counsel agreed to the second meeting but called into question whether the FBI was acting in good faith given its
refusal to even acknowledge the existence of the FD-1023 form at issue,” Comer wrote.
“Soon after the first meeting, Committee counsel requested that the FBI schedule the second meeting for the same week. However, the FBI could not accommodate the briefing until the following week. The second FBI meeting is now scheduled for May 22, 2023. By the date of that meeting, the FBI will be 12 days past the return date set forth in the subpoena.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Friday afternoon on Fox Business that he had a phone call with Wray earlier in the day to press for disclosure of the file.
The standoff over the informant information comes as federal prosecutors are believed to be nearing a charging decision in the investigation of Hunter Biden for alleged tax fraud, money laundering, unregistered foreign lobbying and lying about his drug use on a gun-purchase form.
Communications from Hunter’s abandoned laptop and corroborating photos and witness statements indicate that Joe Biden interacted with Hunter’s associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia while he was sitting vice president.
Hunter wrote that he had to pay up to “half” of his income to his father.
The IRS on Monday removed the investigative team that worked on the Hunter Biden case, including the supervisory agent who helmed the probe since early 2020, after the supervisor contacted Congress last month to allege a coverup featuring “preferential treatment” and false testimony to Congress by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
