FBI pushes back on request from Chuck Grassley, James Comer seeking alleged Biden document

The FBI is pushing back against a request by Iowa's U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and a House committee chairman to produce a document that the two Republicans contend details a "criminal scheme" involving Joe Biden when he was vice president.

Grassley and U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky demanded last week that the FBI produce an "unclassified record alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national."

Grassley said his office had received the information from a whistleblower. He has not disclosed details of the allegations and said in a TV interview last week that "I wish I could say that I knew it was true or untrue.”

In a letter sent to Grassley and Comer Wednesday, an FBI official said the agency would begin the "constitutionally mandated accommodation process" but did not provide the document or confirm its existence.

The document would contain "information from a confidential human source" which is "unverified and, by definition, incomplete," the letter said.

"The mere existence of such a document would establish little beyond the fact that a confidential human source provided information and the FBI recorded it," wrote Christopher Dunham, acting assistant director for the FBI's Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs.

He said reviewing the document "out of context" and without national security protections would "undermine" the FBI's interests in protecting confidential sources.

From USA TODAY: House GOP accuses President Biden of influence peddling; White House says baseless 'innuendo'

Grassley and Comer said in a statement that the FBI's offer "indicates the document is real," and that the letter "raises initial questions, including whether the FBI has an open investigation based on these allegations."

The correspondence comes as Comer and other House Republicans unveiled their investigation into Biden's family finances. That investigation outlined purported payments from foreigners in Romania and China to nine of his relatives and their business associates but did not reveal direct payments to Biden or changes in national policy.

Grassley, alongside other Republicans in Congress, has previously raised concerns that FBI investigations and decision-making are influenced by "political bias," particularly investigations into the Biden family.

White House officials have dismissed the allegations as baseless attacks from partisan rivals. Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson, posted a clip of Grassley's TV interview on social media and has called the investigations led by Comer "relentlessly partisan" and "conspiracies."

USA TODAY contributed reporting.

Galen Bacharier covers politics for the Register. Reach him at gbacharier@registermedia.com or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: FBI pushes back on Grassley's request for alleged Biden document