Jordan seeks declassified info on origin of intel community warning to senators probing Hunter Biden

Jim Jordan on Wednesday demanded the FBI declassify information related to an alleged 2020 attempt by the Intelligence Community to obstruct Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson’s early probe into Hunter Biden. 

The request follows a letter earlier this month from Chairman Jordan, who runs the House Judiciary Committee, to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines where he asked which agency within the intelligence community nominated the information that was ultimately used in a defensive briefing to Grassley and Johnson. 

The senators say the media leak about that briefing hindered their investigation into Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings by raising the impression they were peddling Russian disinformation. 

In response, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence disclosed the agency where the information originated to the committee, but has so far refused to classify it. 

Now, Jordan wants that information declassified to better understand how the intelligence community may have hindered the senators' legitimate congressional investigation into the politically sensitive subject. 

“However, ODNI has twice declined to declassify this information, which hampers Congress’s ability to use the information to inform potential legislative reforms,” Jordan wrote. “The disclosure of the nominating agency’s identity would neither reveal intelligence sources and methods nor harm national security.”

He argues that the decision to keep the information classified is an attempt to limit oversight and prevent necessary reforms. 

Grassley and Johnson first opened an investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business in 2019.

The following August, shortly before the 2020 elections, congressional Democratic leaders raised concerns to FBI Director Christopher Wray that the pair of Senators were peddling Russian disinformation born of a “concerted foreign interference campaign” seeking to “launder and amplify disinformation” through congressional activity. They asked for a defensive briefing on the alleged efforts by the Kremlin. 

The two senators steadfastly denied the characterization by their colleagues. “We have neither sought out, relied upon, nor publicly released anything that could even remotely be considered disinformation,” Grassley and Johnson wrote to their colleagues. 

“Far from promoting Russian disinformation, our investigation is focused on uncovering the facts concerning what did and did not occur so that we can put these matters to rest.” 

The following day, the FBI delivered the defensive briefing to the pair of senators that reportedly contained little new information related to their investigation into Hunter Biden. However, when the existence of the briefing leaked, the senators say it hindered their investigation.