James Comer and Chris Wray Strike Compromise, Staving Off Oversight Committee Contempt Citation

Facing an imminent contempt citation by the House Oversight Committee, FBI director Chris Wray reached a compromise with committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.): The FBI will bring the subpoenaed document at the center of the dispute to the House on Monday. There, Comer and the committee’s ranking member, Jamie Raskin, will review it and receive a related briefing from the bureau.

As Rich and I discussed on the podcast this week, the document in question is an informant report alleging that, while he served as vice president, now-president Joseph Biden was complicit in a bribery scheme involving unidentified foreign actors. (Comer has recently stated that the foreign country involved is not China, nor is it one the committee has previously addressed in its Biden-family investigation — which we discussed in this NR editorial.) The report is memorialized in the FBI’s standard FD-1023 form, which is used to record statements by confidential human sources (CHSs) — i.e., persons who provide information to the FBI, as distinguished from other means of intelligence-gathering (e.g., electronic surveillance).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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Facing an imminent contempt citation by the House Oversight Committee, FBI director Chris Wray reached a compromise with committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.): The FBI will bring the subpoenaed document at the center of the dispute to the House on Monday. There, Comer and the committee’s ranking member, Jamie Raskin, will review it and receive a related briefing from the bureau.

As Rich and I discussed on the podcast this week, the document in question is an informant report alleging that, while he served as vice president, now-president Joseph Biden was complicit in a bribery scheme involving unidentified foreign actors. (Comer has recently stated that the foreign country involved is not China, nor is it one the committee has previously addressed in its Biden-family investigation — which we discussed in this NR editorial.) The report is memorialized in the FBI’s standard FD-1023 form, which is used to record statements by confidential human sources (CHSs) — i.e., persons who provide information to the FBI, as distinguished from other means of intelligence-gathering (e.g., electronic surveillance).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.