The FBI blocked an investigation into an alleged Chinese effort to meddle in the 2020 election to help former President Joe Biden because it would have made then-Director Christopher Wray look bad, documents released by the bureau show.
The documents, provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) by the FBI and released on Tuesday, detailed the alleged election interference plot, which was obtained by the bureau’s Albany field office in August of 2020 from a credible confidential source and was subsequently “suppressed” by FBI headquarters.
The source relayed that the Chinese government had produced “a large amount” of fraudulent US driver’s licenses – using data collected from millions of TikTok accounts – that would allow “tens of thousands of Chinese students and immigrants sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party to vote for US Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, despite not being eligible to vote in the United States.”
Information about the alleged plot was circulated in a Sept. 25, 2020, FBI Intelligence Information Report (IIR) – one day after Wray testified to Congress that the bureau was unaware of any “coordinated national voter fraud effort” – and recalled minutes after it was issued.
“Based on conversations with key individuals involved, it was conveyed that the recall of the IIR was abnormal,” FBI Assistant Director Marshall Yates wrote in a June 27 letter to Grassley.
Yates noted that the IIR was recalled at the direction of FBI headquarters after it prompted “significant attention” within the bureau, and even though it was “coordinated and disseminated in textbook fashion.”
The recall was purportedly issued so the Albany field office could “re-interview” the source, but even after the source was “reengaged and provided additional context to support” the existence of an election interference plot, “FBI Headquarters maintained its position not to republish the report,” Yates wrote.
“One reason cited for not releasing the IIR was because ‘the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony,’” the assistant director informed Grassley.
Albany field officer staffers were told that the recall was issued because the report was deemed by FBI headquarters to be “not authoritative” – a characterization that was “met with disagreement by those in the Albany office,” Yates noted.
The assistant director further revealed that internal emails within the Albany field office showed staff “had concerns that suppressing the IIR would be ‘dangerous if we cite potential political implications as reasons for not putting out our information,’ emphasizing that it was not the role of analysts to align intelligence with public testimony.”
Staffers also expressed concern with FBI headquarters under Wray “assuming the role of sole gatekeeper” for the intelligence community, since suppressing the report would prevent intelligence agencies from corroborating or discrediting the source’s information.
The Albany field office’s report also resulted in a new policy being implemented ahead of the 2020 election, which stated that “all raw reporting concerning the election will now require HQ coordination, which was not required,” Yates said.
Grassley argued that the documents “smack of political decision-making and prove the Wray-led FBI to be a deeply broken institution.”
“Ahead of a high-stakes election happening amid an unprecedented global pandemic, the FBI turned its back on its national security mission,” the senator said in a statement. “One way or the other, intelligence must be fully investigated to determine whether it’s true, or if it’s just smoke and mirrors.”
“Chris Wray’s FBI wasn’t looking out for the American people – it was looking to save its own image.”
In his sworn testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Sept. 24, 2020, Wray told lawmakers that the bureau has “not seen historically any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it is by mail or otherwise… [B]ut people should make no mistake we are vigilant as to the threat and watching it carefully, because we are in uncharted new territory.”
Last week, the FBI confirmed that it “found no information” that the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF)-China division ever “aggressively investigated” the alleged election interference plot, according to Grassley.
Current FBI Director Kash Patel, who authorized the release of the documents to Grassley’s office, has vowed to bring more transparency to the bureau since assuming the helm.
“Now’s the time to rebuild the FBI’s trust,” Grassley said in a statement. “Director Patel’s willingness to work with me to establish renewed transparency and accountability is a critical part of that process, and I applaud him for his efforts.”
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