House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said FBI officials told him an unclassified informant file allegedly detailing a $5 million bribery scheme involving Joe Biden is in use during an ongoing investigation.
Speaking with reporters Monday, Comer said the FBI refused to provide the subpoenaed unclassified document due to its use in an ongoing probe, though Comer said the FBI would not provide any additional information.
“FBI officials confirmed that the unclassified, FBI-generated record has not been disproven and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation,” he said.
“The claims made in the document are consistent with what we found and disclosed to you all in Romania. It suggests a pattern of bribery where payments would be made through shell accounts and multiple banks,” Comer added.
“There’s a term for that, it’s called money laundering … So we feel that this accusation is consistent with a pattern that we’re seeing, frankly, in other countries.” Comer continued. “FBI officials confirmed that the unclassified FBI-generated record has not been disproven and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation.”
The FBI file originated from an interview the bureau conducted with an informant, who is reportedly a “highly credible” FBI source with a history dating back to the Barack Obama administration.
Appearing on Fox News’s Hannity, Comer questioned whether the FBI took any action based on the “credible” source.
“Their answer to me, Sean, ‘it is now part of another investigation,'” Comer said. “We don’t know which investigation. “We don’t know when the investigation began.”
The FBI initially refused to confirm the existence of the file documenting the informant’s claims.
“All we know is two weeks ago they [FBI] tried to act like this [form] didn’t exist and now here is the FBI bringing the form to the House of Representatives,” Comer said.
Because the FBI refused to provide the file to the full House committee, the House Oversight Committee will move Thursday at 9 AM to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.
Democrats pushed back against Republicans’ contempt vote.
Election Denier and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told MSNBC it would be “lawlessness and disorder” to hold the FBI director in contempt.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told reporters the informant’s information “found no evidence” to corroborate the allegations against Joe Biden.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.