House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday he will lead an effort to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress if he refuses to share an informant file accusing President Biden of being part of a $5 million bribery scheme while he was vice president.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) gave Wray until Tuesday to comply with a subpoena for the tipoff — warning that his continued refusal would begin the contempt process.
“Let me tell Director Christopher Wray right here, right now: If he misses the deadline today, I’m prepared to move contempt charges in Congress against him,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on “Fox & Friends.”
“I personally called Director Wray and told him he needs to send that document. Today is the deadline,” the House speaker said.
“We have jurisdiction over this. He can send us that document. We have the right to look at that —Republicans and Democrats alike in that committee. And if he does not follow through with the law, we will move contempt charges against Christopher Wray and the FBI. They are not above the law.”
McCarthy called Wray on May 19 and said afterward he believed the FBI would comply with the Oversight Committee subpoena.
Comer, meanwhile, is scheduled for a Wednesday call with Wray — after the deadline passes.
“I see sensitive documents all the time. I told him he could redact certain parts of that — names and others, so we wouldn’t know methods,” McCarthy said.
“But we have a right to see it. He does not have the right to choose what he can and cannot show us. We oversee the FBI and if he thinks differently, he will soon see a contempt charge in Congress against the director,” he went on.
“There’s enough problems in the FBI and I will not sit back and allow him to ignore this. We will get this document. … He knows that there’s a document and we have a responsibility to see it.”
Comer issued a subpoena for the informant file on May 3 after a whistleblower contacted Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) about the document, said to have been “created or modified” on June 30, 2020.
The FBI refused to provide the document on May 10, citing concerns about informant confidentiality and the fact that tips are unverified.
“Releasing confidential source information could potentially jeopardize investigations and put lives at risk,” the bureau told The Post in a statement last week. “The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have.”
A contempt of Congress vote can carry criminal penalties but serves primarily to shame the officeholder.
Other tools available to enforce subpoenas include litigation, withholding of funding, or impeachment.
Comer and Grassley have not publicly discussed major details of the bribery allegation, such as specifying which country or US policy decisions it involves.
A source has told The Post it’s not believed to deal with China, where the Biden family had two major ventures.
In a remarkable coincidence, Ukrainian officials held a press conference in June 2020 to display $5 million in cash allegedly offered to Kyiv bureaucrats to end an investigation of natural gas company Burisma’s founder Mykola Zlochevsky.
Burisma paid first son Hunter Biden up to $1 million per year to serve on its board from 2014 to 2019, beginning shortly after his father assumed control of the Obama administration’s Ukraine portfolio.
During and immediately after his vice presidency, Joe Biden interacted with Hunter and first brother James Biden’s associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, according to files from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, photographs, and witness recollections.
Joe Biden allegedly touted US aid to Ukraine’s natural gas industry during an official trip to Kyiv in April 2014, shortly after his son secretly joined Burisma.
Later, he even was penciled in as the “big guy” due a 10% cut from a Chinese government-linked energy deal under negotiation in 2017.
Hunter Biden is under criminal investigation by Delaware US Attorney David Weiss for tax fraud, money laundering, illegal foreign lobbying, and lying about his drug use on a gun purchase form.
Hunter wrote in laptop files that he had to share “half” of his income with his father.
Wray already has found himself in hot water with Republicans, including over a perceived double standard in the bureau’s handling of cases looking at Biden and former President Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents.
The FBI initially allowed Biden to search his own Delaware home after papers were found in his garage.
Trump’s residence was raided amid a disagreement with the National Archives.
Republicans also tore into the FBI director after he ducked out early from a Senate hearing in August by implying he had to catch a flight for business.
He admitted in November that he actually cut short questions to use the bureau’s jet to go on vacation to the Adirondacks.
A contempt vote doesn’t always shake loose documents or result in criminal prosecution.
In 2012, the GOP-led House held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to provide reams of documents to the Oversight Committee about the “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal.
In 2019, the Democrat-led House held Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for refusing the Oversight Committee’s requests for documents detailing attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
The Justice Department declined to prosecute Holder, Barr or Ross.
Well people like Christopher Wray should be fired for all of his corrupt doings. He takes things very lightly because he feels he has it all over the American people who he is supposed to be working for. He looks like a hit man for the mob in our Government right now.He also thinks he is above everyone else. To just leave an important meeting to go on vacation, what does that say about him.
They can’t make him do anything. There is no oversight. Our government and all its agencies are corrupt to the core and they do what they want. Welcome to the first few years of communism. There is only one way to hold these people accountable now and Americans won’t do it even though their life depends on it now.
Defund the fbi. it’s a corrupt criminal agency.
Who the hell does this clown think he is. He’s going to lay down the rules for Congress? I don’t think so. Stand him on a bucket, Put a bag over his head and a rope around his neck and give him 60 seconds to turn over an unredacted copy of the document in question. If he doesn’t comply, kick the bucket out from under him.
If Wray defies the Congress, impeach and fire the miserable liberal lying POS