Grassley said the FBI has not yet explained the circumstances of his briefing
EXCLUSIVE: Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have raised new questions about a 2020 FBI briefing in which the senators’ investigation into Hunter Biden is pushing Russian disinformation while the FBI is investigating the same allegations.
“The more we learn about what the FBI is doing in the summer of 2020, the more questions we have about what happened with the information related to the Hunter Biden investigation,” Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital this week. He called the briefing “completely unnecessary” and said it was “a clear attempt to undermine our oversight.”
“Was there a broad effort by federal law enforcement to silence or sideline anything critical of the Biden family ahead of the 2020 election?” Grassley asked. “The emerging timeline does not paint a picture of an apolitical FBI, and the bureau has an obligation to explain itself, which it has so far failed to do.”
Two senators have launched an investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial affairs, specifically his role on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company. During the FBI briefing, senators are finalizing their report to be released in September 2020.
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On August 6, 2020, the FBI briefed Grassley and Johnson “on behalf of the FBI and the intelligence community,” which the senators repeatedly said was a “false attack” on their investigation “due to pressure” from Democrats.
The two senators said that in August 2020, FBI officials began a scheme to shut down investigative activities related to the potential criminal exposure of Hunter Biden by labeling defamatory information on Hunter Biden as “false information.”
The senators noted that whistleblowers alleged that local FBI leadership “instructed employees not to look at Hunter Biden’s laptop as soon as the FBI obtained it.”
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But the briefing comes as the Justice Department’s federal investigation into Hunter Biden is well underway. As of December 2019, the FBI obtained Hunter Biden’s laptop and knew that the material on the laptop had not been “manipulated” and contained “credible” evidence.
Johnson told Fox News Digital that the mixed messages from the FBI are troubling.
“As troubling as the Biden family’s corruption has become — and the extent to which it has shaped American foreign policy — there is a much larger story of corruption to be uncovered,” he said this week.
“The complexity of federal law enforcement and the uneven application of justice is a real threat to our democracy,” Johnson added. “As partisan corruption permeates both Democrat and Republican administrations, the question is, ‘How is this managed and sustained?’
The FBI told Fox News that the bureau had no comment in August 2020 when asked why the briefing was given to Grassley and Johnson and whether the FBI sought to downplay and discredit potentially damaging information about Hunter Biden.
In September 2020, Grassley and Johnson released their Hunter Biden report, which stated that Obama administration officials “knew” Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was “problematic” and that it interfered with the “effective execution of policy regarding Ukraine.”
Hunter Biden joined Burisma in April 2014 and reportedly connected the firm with consulting firm Blue Star Strategies to help the natural gas company fight corruption charges in Ukraine. While on the board of the Hunter Biden company, Joe Biden ran U.S.-Ukraine relations and policy for Vice President and Obama administration.
Grassley and Johnson’s 2020 report on the U.S. The Treasury Department also disclosed records that “show potential criminal activity related to transactions between and among associates of Hunter Biden, his family, and Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh, and Chinese nationals.”
Grassley and Johnson said they received records showing Hunter Biden “sent thousands of dollars” to people involved in human trafficking, adult entertainment industry affiliations, or prostitution.
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IRS whistleblowers involved in the IRS investigation into Hunter Biden confirmed the information contained in a Senate report that found millions of dollars in “questionable financial transactions” between Hunter Biden and his associates and people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
On the other side of the Capitol, the House Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means committees have demanded transcribed interviews from more than a dozen Justice Department, IRS, FBI, and Secret Service officials over allegations of politics influencing prosecutorial decisions in the Hunter Biden investigation.
The House Oversight Committee is investigating the business dealings of the Biden family. That investigation revealed that the Biden family and its business associates created more than 20 companies and received more than $10 million from foreign nationals while Joe Biden served as vice president.
Committee Chairman James Comer said some of the payments represented efforts by the Biden family to “influence” and that the family appeared to have taken steps to “conceal the source and amount received from foreign companies.”
The White House continues to insist that President Biden has “never been in business” with his son.
The DOJ announced last week that Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax and one count of possession of a firearm by an unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance. The plea deal could prevent Hunter Biden from serving prison time.