By Steve Neavling
House Republicans are canceling plans to vote to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt, saying an agreement has been reached to review a document that they believe are related to President Biden and his family.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., had planned to hold a contempt vote on Thursday if Wray refused to provide records related to “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
Wray has agreed to allow committee leaders to review a redacted copy of the document, known as an FD-1023, in a secure area of the Capitol on Monday, The New York Times reports.
But the FBI will not let lawmakers remove copies from the secure room or reveal to them the identity of the longtime bureau informant listed on the record.
“The F.B.I. has caved,” Comer said in a statement on Wednesday night, “and is now allowing all members of the Oversight and Accountability Committee to review this unclassified record that memorializes a confidential human source’s conversations with a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, who is also permitted to review the document, called the unsubstantiated allegations “hearsay.”
“In the spirit of good faith, the F.B.I. has offered Chairman Comer yet further accommodations in response to his subpoena, including to allow all Oversight Committee members to review in camera the secondhand allegations by Ukrainian individuals reported in the tip sheet,” Raskin said, adding: “Holding someone in contempt of Congress is among the most serious actions our Committee can take and it should not be weaponized to undermine the F.B.I.”
