On Monday, lawmakers were given a private briefing by the FBI regarding a still unconfirmed tip from 2020, alleging involvement of Joe Biden in a bribery scheme during his vice-presidential tenure.
While Republicans are presenting the source of this tip as highly reliable, they acknowledge they’re not certain about its veracity. Post-briefing, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) indicated that the FBI hadn’t ruled the claim to be false, though he didn’t state whether they found it credible either.
Comer communicated to the press, “Today, FBI officials confirmed that the unclassified FBI-generated record has not been disproven and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation.”
However, the committee’s leading Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), had a different takeaway from the meeting, stating that the Justice Department under President Donald Trump examined the tip and found it didn’t warrant a full-scale investigation.
Raskin said, “They decided there was no grounds to escalate this up the investigative-prosecutorial chain. If there’s a complaint, the complaint is with Attorney General William Barr, the Trump Justice Department and the team that the Trump administration appointed to look into it.”
Even after reviewing the document at the briefing, Comer mentioned that Republicans were proceeding with contempt charges against FBI Director Christopher Wray as they weren’t given a copy to retain. He expressed frustration, emphasizing the FBI’s source was credible and allegations should be reported accordingly.
Raskin highlighted that the source could not confirm the tip, indicating that it was essentially “secondhand hearsay.”
Meanwhile, the DOJ asserted that the document contains unverified claims collected by an FBI agent, lacks context, and that releasing this information might endanger confidential sources and ongoing investigations.
Interestingly, both Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) admitted having seen the document previously. Grassley insists that his interest lies in whether the Justice Department conducted an investigation, not in the accuracy of the allegations. He stated, “We’re responsible for making sure the FBI does its job, and that’s what we want to know.”
