After weeks of back-and-forth between House Republicans and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during which FBI Director Christopher Wray missed deadlines and defied subpoenas, an unclassified FBI document related to allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden was engaged in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national will finally be reviewed by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The reversal from the FBI comes after Director Wray was threatened with being held in contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to subpoenas from the House Oversight Committee led by Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and on the heels of a half-compliant offer to allow lawmakers to review the FBI document — which was brought to light by a whistleblower — at the FBI's headquarters.
According to Fox News, the document — an FD-1023 form in the FBI's records — will be brought to Capitol Hill on Monday for review by Oversight Committee Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) in a SCIF — sensitive compartmented information facility.
JUST IN: FBI Director Christopher Wray has finally turned over the key document alleging Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 2, 2023
As explained by Fox News' Dana Perino, the document allegedly details a "$5 million criminal plot involving Biden during his vice presidency and a… pic.twitter.com/5IEAaif3bj
While other lawmakers and the general public is unlikely to know what the document actually says about the alleged pay-for-policy scheme then-VP Biden undertook, it will at least confirm for Comer whether the allegations were credible, what the FBI did to investigate them, and what, if any, action was taken. If, as Democrats insist, it's a total nothing-burger — fine. But why, then, did the FBI director go to such lengths to avoid bringing it to Capitol Hill for oversight from Congress?
This is just the latest development in a string of investigations based on whistleblower disclosures undertaken by House Republicans, but it's also a significant victory toward protecting the ability to conduct oversight of the Biden administration.
In the past, holding executive branch officials in contempt of Congress was not always a successful venture, but in this case, Comer and other House committee chairmen were successful in forcing the FBI to provide a document that it clearly wanted to keep hidden from prying eyes, especially those of Republican investigators.