Grassley demands answers on FBI response to alleged Biden bribery doc

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on Friday vowed to investigate why the FBI withheld a document detailing confidential human source information about an alleged bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden.

The "patron saint of whistleblowers" released the FD-1023 outlining the scheme in its entirety this week. The document described an effort in which Ukrainian gas firm Burisma hired now-first son Hunter Biden to its board to secure his father's help in shutting down an investigation into the company. Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky ostensibly paid the Bidens $5 million each for the effort.

President Joe Biden has publicly taken credit for getting then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin fired. The former Ukrainian official had been investigating the firm for corruption and the document reveals that Burisma executives feared his probe could obstruct their efforts to acquire a U.S. company for IPO purposes.

"My constitutional oversight responsibilities on this 1023 are to find out why FBI hid the doc from Congress & the American ppl for years/what steps were taken to investigate the info or was it swept under the rug??? FBI concealed info from House version to hide info WHY??" Grassley tweeted. "More examples of fbi political bias[.] Congress must do exacting/aggressive oversight."

The FD-1023 was created in June of 2020 and the bureau began receiving information on the matter from the confidential human source as early as 2017.

House Republicans learned of the document as part of a sweeping effort to investigate the Bidens and their business dealings. Though the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena for the unclassified document, the FBI refused to provide it. As the House moved to hold FBI Director Wray in contempt, the bureau offered a compromise wherein House lawmakers could view the form in a secure location, a proposal with which they agreed.

When the time came to view the document, however, the bureau provided lawmakers with a heavily redacted version, prompting outrage from Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.

"What is the FBI hiding from Congress? Americans have lost confidence in the FBI’s ability to enforce the law impartially and the FBI’s secrecy shows that they aren’t interested in regaining their trust," he said at the time.

Grassley's version included no redactions.

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