WASHINGTON - The House Republicans doubled down on their attacks against President Joe Biden and his family yesterday after seeing a document hidden behind closed doors that remains secret.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee emerged from a secure room on Capitol Hill known as a SCIF after seeing the FBI's FD- 1023 form, and continued to accuse Biden and his family members of bribery and corruption.
However, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly released financial documents that did not support any of these accusations.
The previous descriptions of the document by Republicans said it purportedly contains an unverified allegation from a human source that said Biden, who was vice president, was involved in a bribery scheme involving a foreign national. The House Republicans on Thursday voted to call the allegation credible and legitimate. Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said the human source has been a paid FBI information for several years.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, Texas, said Biden is 100% guilty of bribery.
Democrats were also viewed the document on Thursday, but none opted to make public statements afterward.
The FBI team briefed him and Comer on Monday said that the Department of Justice team of prosecutors and FBI agents under U.S. Attorney Scott Brady determined that there were no grounds to escalate their probe from an initial assessment of the allegations surfaced by Rudy Giuliani to a preliminary or full-blown investigation and that it was therefore closed down. On Wednesday, a memo from Ian Sams, an assistant secretary of the president and White House Oversight, said not to fall for Comer's stunts and said that he and his committee have spent six months wasting taxpayer resources to stage politically-motivated stunts disguised as investigations. Republican lawmakers on the Oversight panel today said they plan to subpoena records from two banks. They also said they plan to request additional documents and request the FBI make the document they viewed public.
Originally, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., planned to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings against FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, following the panel's efforts to acquire the FBI's FD 1023 form. But on Wednesday, the FBI said it offered members a chance to view a redacted version of the document on Thursday.
After viewing the form on Thursday, two Republicans, Biggs and Luna, said contempt is still on the table for Wray. The FBI director wanted to play games and he was trying to punk us by saying that he wasn t going to allow members of House Oversight to see this document. So we re not taking contempt of Congress off the table, to be clear. If they are going to do that, he s going to be dealt with accordingly, Luna said.
Comer asked the FBI last month to subpoena the documents, which he and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, allege describe an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions. Comer has said the scheme involved a $5 million payment from a foreign national in exchange for a policy outcome.
The FBI declined to release the document, saying it is bound by Justice Department policy, which strict limits when and how confidential human source information can be provided outside of the FBI. Democrats on the panel have dismissed the GOP's attacks on Biden. earlier this week, Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was sworn in as chairperson of the House Energy Committee. Comer said his interest in issuing this subpoena was never about seeking the truth but was always about weaponizing the powers of this committee.