More than 40 confidential sources provided “criminal information” related to the Biden family to the FBI — which the Justice Department tried to discredit as “foreign disinformation,” according to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
The confidential human sources, managed by several different FBI field offices, supplied the bureau with details of potential crimes by Hunter Biden, James Biden and Joe Biden dating back to his time as vice president, according to a letter, obtained by The Post, that was sent by the Iowa Republican to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday.
“This letter is based on years of investigation, including the provision of information, records, and allegations from multiple Justice Department whistleblowers that indicate there is – and has been – an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family,” Grassley wrote.
“An essential question that must be answered is this: did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down? Indeed, if those sources were improperly shut down, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the FBI,” he added.
“Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers, there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family,” Grassley continued. “Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director, but also line agents and prosecutors.”
The senator notes whistleblower allegations claimed that the bureau received information about first son Hunter Biden’s “criminal financial and related activity” in 2020, but “ultimately shut it down based on false assertions that it was subject to foreign disinformation.”
The disinformation assessment was created by FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten, according to Grassley, who explains that the report was used by ”an FBI HQ team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”
“The precise basis for how the FBI HQ team selected the specific information for inclusion in Auten’s assessment is unknown, but the focus of the FBI HQ team’s attention involved derogatory information about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden,” Grassley wrote.
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Grassley alleges 40 sources gave FBI criminal information about Biden family
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is seeking information from the Department of Justice and FBI about whether they properly vetted what he says were dozens of confidential human sources who allegedly provided federal investigators with criminal information about the Biden family.
The Iowa Republican asked the DOJ and FBI in a letter published Wednesday to provide him with a wide range of records about how they vetted the alleged information from the sources.
Citing anonymous whistleblower disclosures, Grassley said he had been made aware that the agencies had at one point maintained more than 40 sources who had criminal information about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter and brother James.
“An essential question that must be answered is this: did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down? Indeed, if those sources were improperly shut down, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the FBI,” Grassley wrote.
The Republican senator’s requests come as House Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over allegations he abused his authority when he was vice president to personally profit off of his family’s many foreign business dealings. Part of the GOP’s inquiry involves examining how the DOJ has handled its own parallel investigation into Hunter Biden after whistleblowers alleged that the investigation had been “slow-walked” by government officials to protect the Bidens.
Grassley, a longtime advocate for whistleblowers, has for years also been vetting allegations about the DOJ’s investigation into Hunter Biden and demanding responses from the department about them.
The Iowa lawmaker, who currently serves as the Senate Budget Committee ranking member and as a Judiciary Committee member, accused the department of stonewalling him on the issue since 2019.
The DOJ, at least this year, has appeared to prioritize extensive requests, such as this latest one from Grassley, from those helming congressional committees. The DOJ bolstered its legislative staff this year, for example, to meet investigative requests from House Republicans, who enjoy majority authorities such as subpoena power and have been sending a barrage of Biden-related demands to the department all year.
Grassley’s letter on Thursday came after he released in July the most damning accusation against Joe and Hunter Biden yet in the form of an FD-1023, an investigative form the FBI uses to record information it gets from confidential human sources.
The form alleged that Joe and Hunter Biden accepted $5 million each in bribes so that Joe Biden, who was at the time vice president, would use his authority to protect a Ukrainian energy company from scrutiny while his son held a lucrative board position with the company.
Grassley said in Thursday’s letter that certain FBI personnel allegedly attempted “to sweep [the form] under the rug” in part by falsely attributing it to foreign disinformation.
“It should be emphasized that the basis for trying to shut down the Biden family 1023 has been described to my office as highly suspect and is contradicted by other documents my office has been told exist within the Foreign Influence Task Force, FBI Seattle Field Office, FBI Baltimore Field Office, and FBI HQ holdings,” Grassley wrote.
He noted that the information on the FD-1023 had come from a “long-standing, high-paid” FBI source “who’s been used in other investigative matters” and whose travel schedule corroborated travel mentioned on the form.
The FBI confirmed it had received Grassley’s letter but said it had no other comment. The DOJ declined to comment.
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