Grassley hits back against 'breathless media misreporting' about FBI informant doc

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on Tuesday pushed back on what he deemed "breathless media misreporting" on an FBI FD-1023 confidential human source document outlining bribery allegations against the Biden family.

"Today I want to take the time of my colleagues to set the record straight yet again about the FBI-generated 1023. And I do this because the breathless media misreporting requires that I come to the floor to give a historical reorientation with facts and evidence," he declared in remarks on the Senate floor.

The document became public in July of 2023. The House Oversight Committee had issued a subpoena for the unclassified document though FBI Director Christopher Wray did not surrender the form, instead permitting lawmakers to view it in a secure location. Grassley subsequently released the document. The explosive allegations renewed attention to Joe and Hunter Biden's relationship with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, though special counsel David Weiss's recent charging of ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who supplied the information, has cast doubt on its veracity. 

"It's all pretty simple. I didn’t promote or vouch for the allegations in the 1023 as the truth like some confused Democrats and the partisan media have falsely said. I pushed the FBI to do their job, because that’s my responsibility to the taxpayers and the people of Iowa," he said. "Now, some confused Democrats and partisan media have returned to their favorite line: falsely saying that our effort to get the FBI to do their job is somehow peddling Russian disinformation."

"The FBI said the same to Congress and used that credibility assessment to withhold the 1023 from Congress when we first asked for it. Even Ranking Member Raskin of the House [Oversight] Committee confirmed that the FBI told Congress the FBI source was credible," he went on. "The FBI found their source so credible that the FBI gave their source the authority to engage in illegal activity for the FBI’s criminal investigations. And yes, I want to make clear, the FBI said that he could do illegal things in his work for the FBI."

"The FBI told him that he may even have to testify in court based on the information he provided. In fact, the FBI said that this source was so credible that the public release of the unclassified 1023 could put his life at risk... Now, let me be clear: the FBI consistently and publicly vouched for their source," Grassley asserted. "Then, the other week, the Biden Justice Department made this source’s name public for the world to see… Apparently, the FBI’s excuse to withhold the document from Congress was pure smoke. Remember, the FBI said releasing the 1023 could put the confidential human source’s life in danger. The FBI’s conduct is obviously absurd and a disservice to the American people."

"According to the Justice Department indictment, the FBI finally interviewed the FBI source on September 27, 2023. We made the 1023 public just a few months prior, on July 20, 2023. Clearly, the FBI finally acted because of our release of the document. In other words, we embarrassed them," the Iowa Republican stated. "And by that time, as I’ve said by my timeline, the document was over three years old. Three years they didn’t do their job. So, the 1023 sat with the FBI collecting dust until we, in Congress, acted. My releasing the 1023 got the FBI to do its job that they should have been doing three years before."

Grassley went on to accuse the FBI of "play[ing] games" and vowed to continue his oversight of the intelligence agency. Comer, for his part, has insisted that the ongoing House impeachment inquiry into Biden is "not reliant" on Smirnov's allegations.

"To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023. It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings," he said earlier this month.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.