House Oversight Committee Archives

House GOP threatens to hold FBI chief Wray in contempt over Biden document

June 1, 2023
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, threatening to put him in contempt of Congress. The threat has to do with an unclassified document that allegedly details a bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.

The FBI has refused to hand over the document, offering only to allow the lawmakers to see it “in a secure manner to accommodate the committee while protecting the confidentiality and safety of sources and important investigative sensitivities.”

“The FBI’s refusal to produce this single document is obstructionist,” Rep. Comer said in his letter to Wray. “Your response to the subpoena is due May 30, 2023. If the document is not produced by that date, the Committee will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.”

The original subpoena asked for “all FD-1023 forms, including within any open, closed, or restricted access case files, created or modified in June 2020, containing the term ‘Biden,’ including all accompanying attachments and documents to those FD-1023 forms.”

However, according to the FBI, a search for the document based on Comer’s original terms turned up too many results.

In order to narrow the scope of the search, Comer added two search terms, “five million” and “June 30, 2020.” The committee had already reported in May that relatives of Biden, including his son Hunter, had received more than $10 million from foreign sources between 2015 and 2017.

Wray is hardly the only member of the Biden administration in the crosshairs of the Republican-led house. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul has threatened to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt. In addition, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic successfully compelled CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to testify on June 13 via a threat to subpoena.
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House Oversight: Whistleblower says Biden may have accepted bribes as VP

May 4, 2023

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, R-Ky., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said they obtained legally privileged whistleblower information about a possible criminal scheme between former Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national. They said the information involves an exchange of money for policy decisions.

The committee subpoenaed the FBI for un-redacted FD-1023 forms from June 2020 that contain the term Biden. The FBI uses FD-1023 forms to document interviews with sources.

Grassley said the whistleblower is in the FBI but has no further details and does not know if any criminal activity took place. Grassley said he believes the document contains serious and detailed allegations implicating President Biden and they need it to verify the information.

The White House immediately moved to cast doubt on the allegation.

Spokesman Ian Sams tweeted, “Innuendo and insinuation masquerading as investigation.” Sams also stated the president has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns.

Republicans admitted they don’t know if the document will show any evidence of wrongdoing. But Sen. Grassley said he has a proven track record of working with whistleblowers for 40 years.

“Not once has the FBI, or the DOJ counteracted anything that I’ve stated publicly about information I wanted or accusations we’re making,” Grassley told reporters.

“The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself. Senator Grassley and I will seek the truth to ensure accountability for the American people,” Comer said in a statement.

The pair said they want Congress to investigate because the FBI has a “track record of allowing political bias to infect their decision-making process.”

“Therefore, Congress will proceed to conduct an independent and objective review of this matter, free from those agencies’ influence,” the letter accompanying the subpoena said.

The subpoena deadline is May 10 at noon. The committee has not said what its next steps would be if the FBI doesn’t comply.
Drug cartels are using drones to pinpoint Border Patrol agents’ locations

February 7, 2023

Two Border Patrol chiefs appeared before the House Oversight Committee and described the extraordinary challenges the agency is facing on the southern border. They said cartels are going to great lengths to avoid apprehension, that includes using drones and camouflage.

In Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, cartels are using drones to pinpoint agents’ locations, hoping it will help them smuggle drugs and people. According to the sector chief, the Rio Grande Valley had 10,000 drone incursions in a single year.

“We have made great progress in countering the threat of small unmanned platforms. However, the adversaries have 17 times the number of drones, twice the amount of flight hours and unlimited funding to grow their operations,” Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Gloria Chavez said.

The Tucson sector chief testified that his agents are encountering single adult men, not families. Many of those men have criminal histories. They wear camouflage, run and even fight agents to avoid apprehension.

“Many are previously deported felons who know they’re inadmissible to the United States, and many pose a serious threat to our communities,” Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin.

Chief Modlin said for an added fee, the immigrants are given cellphones to navigate through the desert and mountains. Other tactics include saturating an area with large groups to overwhelm agents. Cartels also recruit American high schoolers on social media to drive immigrants after they cross. It’s a very dangerous, sometimes deadly and illegal venture.

“No one crosses in the Tucson sector without going through the cartels,” Modlin said. “In the Tucson sector, everything south of the border is controlled by the cartels.”

As for the politics, Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., blamed the president for the increase in crossings.

“President Biden and his administration have created the worst border crisis in American history. The cartels are leveraging chaos at the border,” Rep. Comer said.

The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Md., said Republicans have voted against bills that could have helped the situation and have not presented a solution.

“Our basic problem is a political one: legal channels of immigration have been choked off in the wake of congressional failure to act in bipartisan fashion on immigration policy,” Rep. Raskin said.

There was bipartisan support for stopping the flow of fentanyl, which was described as a matter of life and death.
Congress members call for police reform legislation following Tyre Nichols’ death

January 31, 2023

The body camera footage of Tyre Nichols’ death has restarted conversation regarding police reform. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died three days after police pulled him over for reckless driving and beat him when he tried to flee the scene.

“First, it’s about making sure that the president knows that this is an important enough issue for him to talk about at the State of the Union,” Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said. “I’ve invited the Nichols family as the guests of the Congressional Black Caucus so they will be there on that day to hear from the president and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle how we will finally take action.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., tweeted, “I’ll never stop working to create the coalition necessary to pass policing reform and to help end this.”

While some are calling for legislative change, House Oversight Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, doesn’t think that’s the solution.

“Well, I don’t know that there’s any law that can stop that evil that we saw—that is just difficult to watch,” Jordan said. “What strikes me is just the lack of respect for human life.”

The most recent effort to advance police reform legislation in Congress came in 2021 after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second and third-degree murder charges for the death of George Floyd. Sen. Booker worked across the aisle with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., to negotiate the legislation, but they ultimately failed to come to an agreement. The sticking points reportedly included qualified immunity and disagreement from police unions.
Democrats becoming increasingly critical of Biden’s classified documents

January 23, 2023

Democrats are becoming increasingly critical of President Biden’s handling of classified documents. Their statements came after the Justice Department searched President Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware Friday and found six more documents. Some were from his eight years as vice president while others went all the way back to his time as a senator.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said it’s “unacceptable” and that Biden should be “embarrassed.”

“When that information is found it diminishes the stature of any person who is in possession of it. Because it’s not supposed to happen. Whether it was the fault of a staffer or attorney makes no difference. The elected official bears ultimate responsibility,” Durbin said on CNN’s State of the Union.

But Democrats are still supportive of the president’s response. They said he has been more transparent and more cooperative than former President Trump, who defied a subpoena for documents at his Florida home.

“President Biden is someone who respects the rule of law, who respects the importance of classified documents, and that this was a consensual search. That the Department of Justice was invited to come to his home and to search every nook and cranny, top to bottom, to find anything they possibly could,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said on ABC’s This Week.

The senators explained that when they view classified information, they do it in a locked room or SCIF (secure compartmented information facility) and can’t take anything with them when they leave. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsels to investigate both the Biden and Trump cases.

“I think that Merrick Garland did the right thing by putting the special counsel, and I think that we should wait until the special counsel, rather than making this a political circus, let them find out the facts. What one was more damaging? Are they both about the same, did not cause any problem? Or is one more reckless and irresponsible than the other?” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., said on Meet the Press.

In addition to the special counsel, President Biden is also being investigated by the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., put in an official request with the Secret Service to hand over all the information it has about visitors to the Biden’s Wilmington residence by Feb. 6.
McCarthy vows to look at both Biden and Trump classified documents

January 18, 2023

“Yes, Yes, Yes.” That’s how House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., responded when asked if Republican-controlled congressional committees will look into the classified documents cases of both President Biden and former President Trump.

McCarthy said the House has an obligation to oversee the Justice Department and he has expressed concern that President Biden and Trump are not receiving equal treatment.

“They put a special prosecutor but only after people raised the issue. But are the same amount of agents investigating this that are investigating President Trump? Is the same push behind it? It just does not seem fair,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsels to lead the Justice Department’s investigations. Jack Smith, who just returned from The Hague after prosecuting war crimes in Kosovo, will investigate Trump. Robert Hur, who was appointed by Trump to serve as the United States Attorney for Maryland, will investigate Biden.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer already put in a request with White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain for documents and communications related to the Biden case. He’ll be joined on the Oversight Committee by members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who used their vote for speaker as leverage to get the appointments.

The list includes Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. Gosar and Greene were both stripped of their committee assignments by Democrats. Now, with the House in Republican control, they have one of the most sought after positions.

“Joe Biden, be prepared. We are going to uncover every corrupt business dealing, every foreign entanglement, every abuse of power, and every check cut for The Big Guy,” Greene said in a statement.

Greene was also appointed to the Homeland Security Committee, giving her two plum seats.
White House, Secret Service don’t keep visitor logs for Biden home

January 16, 2023

Neither the White House nor the Secret Service maintain visitor logs for President Biden’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware. They’re making the disclosure because the House Oversight Committee put in an official request with White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain for all logs going back to Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Biden took office.

“Like every president in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” the White House counsel’s office said in a statement obtained by Fox. “But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.”

A Secret Service spokesman said the agency does screen visitors but does not maintain a record of who they checked.

“We don’t independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence,” Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told reporters.

The Secret Service said the same for former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home when classified documents were found there.

In his letter to Klain, Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wrote it is “troubling” that classified information has been stored at the Biden home.

“President Biden’s mishandling of classified materials raises the issue of whether he has jeopardized our national security. Without a list of individuals who have visited his residence, the American people will never know who had access to these highly sensitive documents,” Comer wrote.

Comer also requested all documents and communications by Biden aides that are related to the case.

“Because this is the same type of investigation that the Democrats were so outraged and launched and demanded happen to President Trump. What we see with President Biden is there are multiple locations. We would never have known about the possession of the classified documents were it not for investigative reporting by CBS,” Comer said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Democrats contend President Biden’s team has handled the situation well and returned the documents the day they were discovered.

“That is a very different posture than what we saw with Donald Trump, where he was fighting for a period of more than 8 months to not turn over hundreds of missing documents that the Archives was asking about,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said on State of the Union. “I think every American has an interest in seeing that classified documents are properly handled by whoever is president and by any administration. And all we’re looking for is equal treatment.”

A growing list of congressional Democrats have spoken out, saying this is a serious matter and needs to be thoroughly investigated. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel on Thursday.

The AP contributed to this report.

House GOP threatens to hold FBI chief Wray in contempt over Biden document

House Oversight: Whistleblower says Biden may have accepted bribes as VP

Drug cartels are using drones to pinpoint Border Patrol agents’ locations

Congress members call for police reform legislation following Tyre Nichols’ death

Democrats becoming increasingly critical of Biden’s classified documents

McCarthy vows to look at both Biden and Trump classified documents

White House, Secret Service don’t keep visitor logs for Biden home

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