The chairman of the House Weaponization Select Subcommittee, Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), has opened an oversight probe into U.S. intelligence services for reportedly trying to thwart a 2020 Senate investigation into the Biden family.
The House Judiciary Committee and its subcommittee “are investigating allegations that the U.S. Intelligence Community obstructed a congressional inquiry in 2020 by falsely alleging that the work of two U.S. Senators was advancing Russian ‘disinformation,'” Jordan wrote to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines on Wednesday.
A legislative inquiry into allegations of influence peddling involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden was started three years ago by Senators Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa). As part of their investigation, two FBI agents gave the Republican legislators a “defensive” briefing on August 6, 2020, characterising those assertions as false material originating from Russia.
According to National Review, Grassley and Johnson were almost finished writing their report from September 2020 about Hunter Biden’s alleged influence-peddling operations in China and Ukraine.
Jordan is requesting information regarding that “so-called ‘defensive’ briefing,” as he phrased it, from Haines, requesting that he submit “all draughts of the script” that were used to advise the two senators.
“The briefing, the existence of which was later leaked, hampered the Senators’ investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial connections to foreign governments and foreign nationals,” Jordan said.
According to a letter Grassley and Johnson later wrote to Nikki Floris, the then-Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, and Bradley Benavides, the then-Section Chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force, the Russian disinformation briefing that the two FBI officials received “consisted primarily of information that [the Senators] already knew and information unconnected to [their] Biden investigation.”
“The unnecessary FBI briefing provided the Democrats and liberal media with the vehicle to spread their false narrative that our work advanced Russian disinformation,” the Republican senators wrote in August 2022.
Even though you claimed that the FBI didn’t intend to “interfere” with our investigation, the practical effects of such an unnecessary briefing and the subsequent leaks related to it frustrated and obstructed congressional oversight efforts.
Shortly after the New York Post revealed proof of Biden family influence peddling on Hunter’s abandoned laptop, a whopping 51 former intelligence officials signed an open letter characterising the device as the product of Russian disinformation.
During a discussion with former President Donald Trump, Biden brought up the letter to counter his claims that being vice president had helped him personally.
Jordan’s letter specifies that Haines must produce the briefing script and all additional materials, including all requested documents and communications, by November 15.
Jordan declared earlier this week that the House Judiciary Committee has started investigating allegations that the Justice Department spied on Congressmen and their staff.
“We now know that they spied on congressional staffers,” Jordan said in an appearance on Fox Business’s “The Evening Edit” with Elizabeth MacDonald. “We want to know, how far does it go? Were they spying on members? Were they spying on other staffers? Keep this in mind, Liz: We know they spied on President Trump’s campaign. We know all that from the FISA Court and what they did with Carter Page and Papadopoulos—everything else. Now we’ve learned that they spied on one of Sen. Grassley’s staff members, Jason Foster.”
“We want to know, does it go further?” he stressed. “So we’ve sent letters not only to the Department of Justice but to all these carriers that the Department of Justice worked with to get the phone records and the email records from congressional staffers like Mr. Foster. How far does this go? Were they spying on members and other staff?”
Jordan wrote to Alphabet, Apple, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon’s CEOs, as well as Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting information about the DOJ’s alleged attempts to obtain the private communications of members of Congress and their staff as part of the investigation.