House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and his Republican colleagues on the committee are demanding Democratic Maryland Rep. James Raskin issue a correction and apologize for what appear to be false statements about the FBI document containing Biden family bribery allegations.
Rep. Comer and Oversight Committee Republicans wrote a letter to Raskin Thursday, requesting he issue a correction and a formal apology for apparent incorrect statements surrounding the investigative steps taken on the FBI FD-1023 form containing the bribery allegations. (RELATED: White House Defense Of James Biden’s $200,000 Payment To Joe Biden Not Backed Up By Bank Records, James Comer Says)
READ THE LETTER:
“In the course of this investigation, you have been a spirited critic of the need to look into President Biden or his family. It is of course your prerogative to determine how best to serve your constituents, Abbe Lowell, and the American people. However, the Oversight Committee must not be used as a means to propagate false or deceptive information, and for that purpose, we must address public statements you have made that contradict facts and are, unfortunately, lies,” the letter reads.
“The Committee requests that you formally correct the record and apologize to the American people for spreading disinformation about evidence collected by the Committee during its investigation of President Biden,” the letter adds.
“Additionally, we ask, Mr. Raskin, that you take seriously your position as Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and its incumbent responsibility to be honest regarding facts learned in the course of investigations—even those that are inconvenient to your own political views. While we appreciate your role up to this point has been to play defense counsel for the Biden family, it is time to follow the evidence and speak the truth.”
Former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady testified to the House Judiciary Committee and refuted Raskin’s statements about the FD-1023 form’s credibility, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the Daily Caller.
“My understanding of Mr.Raskin’s public statements is that, based on the determination that I and my team found the allegations in the 1023 not credible or other information not credible, we did not escalate the assessment to a limited or full investigation. That’s not true,” Brady told the Judiciary Committee.
🚨🚨🚨
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin is spreading disinformation and lying to the American people about evidence collected by @GOPoversight during its investigation of President Joe Biden.
He should apologize, correct the record, and stop playing lawyer for the Biden family. pic.twitter.com/Nr7OuuEF62
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) October 26, 2023
The letter written by Comer cites Brady’s refutation of Raskin’s claims that Brady’s team terminated an investigation into the document. Raskin made his claims in June when the FBI allowed Oversight Committee members to view the document prior to Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley releasing it to the public in July.
Brady was tasked with reviewing the FD-1023 document’s contents and testified the bribery allegations came from a confidential human source who previously worked with the FBI. He found the document credible enough to brief other U.S. Attorneys on its contents and suggest further investigative steps.
Brady dispelled claims the document came from information about Ukraine sent to authorities by former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Grassley made the same assertion in a letter he wrote Tuesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray. (RELATED: FBI Allegedly Covered Up Biden Family Accusations By Calling Them ‘Foreign Disinformation,’ Sen Grassley Finds)
Raskin and other Oversight Committee Democrats have repeatedly called for Giuliani to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The Biden family and its business associates brought in more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan from 2014-19, according to a House memo circulated prior to the impeachment inquiry hearing.
Joe Biden called the bribery allegations “malarkey” in June, and the White House has said he was “not in business” with his son.
Henry Rodgers contributed to this report