As House Republicans continue to explore impeaching President Joe Biden, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has a request for FBI Director Christopher Wray. On Thursday night, Jordan sent Wray a letter informing him that the Committee is seeking an FBI FD-1023 form from March 1, 2017 to do with "a confidential human source (CHS) report about payments made to the Biden family from foreign entities." As the letter explained, the FD-1023 in question "is referenced in a second FD-1023 from June 2020 detailing bribery allegations that involve President Biden and his son, Hunter," and is needed to "evaluate whether sufficient grounds exist to consider drafting articles of impeachment."
The Committee knows about the FD-1023 thanks to testimony that former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady provided, who had asked the FBI to find information on files to do with Burisma--where Hunter Biden served on the board of directors--after he had been tasked by then Attorney Bill Barr to sort through FBI files.
As Jordan explained during his Thursday night appearance on Fox News' "Hannity," the 2017 FD-1023 "became the basis for...Brady... asking to talk to the [CHS] that produced the 1023 form we have." They're now asking for this form.
Brady testified it was "correct" that the FD-1023 in question "was not information provided from the public." The FBI also waited until being contacted by Brady to reach out to the CHS for more information. Brady categorized the FD-1023 as having "not been developed," making clear "it's fair to say that it had not been looked into or developed any further." It was because of Brady's directive that the FBI took action to develop the information in the FD-1023.
The 2020 FD-1023 did not come about without some "back and forth," though, as Brady had categorized it.
"There were conversations. There was reluctance. Again, this was a CHS that was known to the FBI, was credible, had been used—had provided information that was used in other investigations. And so, there’s always a sensitivity in engaging CHSs. You know, the FBI wants to make sure it’s for a purpose that they agree with. So we had discussions. I think there was initial reluctance, and then through, you know, a series of conversations they agreed to go out and re-interview," Brady testified when asked if there had been "some sort of reluctance on the part of the FBI."
Read the full letter here: https://t.co/8QEAkujirC
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) January 12, 2024
What followed was the creation on a now public FD-1023, which certainly implicates the Bidens, including and especially the president from when he was vice president, as Jordan's letter explains, with added emphasis:
The subsequent re-interview of the CHS—whom the FBI considered “highly credible” and had previously used in multiple investigative matters—resulted in the creation of now publicly available FD-1023, dated June 30, 2020, containing information implicating then-Vice President Biden in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme. As memorialized in this FD-1023, during a meeting in late 2015 or early 2016, an executive from Burisma told the CHS that Burisma had hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” At a subsequent meeting, then-President of Burisma Mykola Zlochevsky told the CHS that he had paid $5 million to two Bidens, and that both Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Biden told Zlochevsky to hire Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board of directors. When the CHS brought up the issue of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s investigation of Burisma, Zlochevsky said that the investigation “will go away anyway,” and that it was “too late to change his decision”regarding how to deal with the investigation, which the CHS understood “to mean that Zlochevsky had already . . . paid the Bidens, presumably to deal with [the Prosecutor General].” Zlochevsky later informed the CHS that “he didn’t want to pay the Bidens and he was pushed to pay them.” Zlochevsky explained that he “did not send any funds directly to the‘Big Guy’ (which CHS understood was a reference to Joe Biden)” and instead used a complex web of payments.
As Jordan goes on to note in his letter, "Because the 2020FD-1023 includes such serious allegations of bribery and the involvement of President Biden in Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and because material in the 2017 FD-1023 led to the development of the 2020 FD-1023, the Committee needs access the 2017 FD-1023." In case there was any doubt, the letter goes on to mention that "In sum, the 2017 FD-1023 is necessary to inform potential legislation and to inform the Committee’s impeachment investigation into President Biden."
It was during that "Hannity" segment that Jordan emphasized that this had to do with "the big takeaway" from the week, a week when Jordan's Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee engaged in markups to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for skipping out on depositions he had been subpoenaed to appear for. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) also appeared on the program. It was also the week when Hunter Biden entered a "not guilty" plea on tax charges.
"I think the big takeaway is what David Weiss didn't charge Hunter Biden with," Jordan offered. "He didn't charge him with those tax years 2014-2015, when he got the income from Burisma. In fact, he let the statute of limitations expire. Because it's one thing to have a gun charged in Delaware, that doesn't get you to the White House and other thing to have tax charges in L.A. that doesn't get to the White House, Jordan went on to share, speaking of other charges against the first son. "But the Burisma tax years do and that's what's in that 1023 form. That's why they want the earlier one as well. And we've asked the FBI to produce it."
Host Sean Hannity certainly had some questions. "When this became an issue, why wouldn't they automatically have handed you the other 1023 form? In words In order words were they hiding it from you?" Hannity added "it doesn't seem like they're very cooperative."
"I don't know they were hiding it from us, but we learned about it when we talk to Scott Brady, the U.S. attorney who Bill Barr charged with filtering all this stuff and getting it out to the appropriate U.S. Attorneys for investigation. He found it out finally after six months when they should have turned it over to him. He's the one that asked for it. So once we talked to him we felt we should go pursue and get this. So we're hoping that Chris Wray will turn it over," Jordan told Hannity.
Jordan is Wray to provide the document by January 19, as is indicated in the letter.
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