House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan opened an investigation Wednesday into the intelligence community\u2019s alleged obstruction of Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson\u2019s 2020 investigation into Hunter Biden by casting their work as an advancement of Russian \u2018disinformation.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jordan, R-Ohio, who also chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines demanding information on the efforts by officials to debunk their probe.<\/p>\n
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., began investigating Hunter Biden and his business dealings with Ukraine and other foreign nations in 2019.<\/p>\n
In August 2020, Grassley and Johnson were given a briefing by the FBI \u2014 a briefing that the senators have since called described as improper, and one that was delivered after \u2018pressure from congressional Democrats\u2019 and ahead of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
The \u2018defensive\u2019 briefing, on August 6, 2020, was delivered by FBI officials, including then-Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Nikki Floris, and the FBI\u2019s then-Section Chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) Bradley Benavides. The officials briefed Grassley and Johnson on the \u2018threat of Russian disinformation.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Although the FBI claims that the briefing focused on Russia, the information that Floris and Benavides conveyed to the Senators \u2018consisted primarily of information that [the Senators] already knew and information unconnected to [their] Biden investigation.\u2019\u00a0The briefing, the existence of which was later leaked, hampered the Senators\u2019\u00a0investigation into Hunter Biden\u2019s financial connections to foreign governments and foreign nationals,\u2019 Jordan wrote to Haines Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Jordan pointed to Grassley and Johnson\u2019s letter to Floris and Benavides after the briefing, calling it \u2018unnecessary,\u2019 and a briefing that \u2018provided the Democrats and liberal media the vehicle to spread their false narrative that our work advanced Russian disinformation. Although you stated that the FBI didn\u2019t intend to \u2018interfere\u2019\u00a0in our investigation, the practical effect of such an unnecessary briefing and the subsequent leaks relating to it created interference, which frustrated and obstructed congressional oversight efforts.\u2019<\/p>\n
But Jordan conducted a transcribed interview with Floris, who said that while the briefing was delivered by FBI officials, the intelligence \u2018used to justify the Senators\u2019\u00a0\u2018defensive\u2019\u00a0briefing did not come from the FBI, but rather from ODNI.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Specifically, she testified that \u2018ODNI owns this whole process\u2026ODNI took the lead\u2026in drafting the script\u2019\u00a0used to brief Senators Grassley and Johnson. She further testified: \u2018I would certainly defer you to ODNI as far as the specifics that were in the script. It wasn\u2019t FBI collected information,\u2019\u2019 Jordan wrote.<\/p>\n
Jordan added that during a transcribed interview with Benavides in September, he testified that he and Floris had briefed Grassley and Johnson \u201dat the request of the ODNI,\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018He further testified that the script used to brief the senators had been \u2018coordinated through the ODNI framework and then delivered in this instance, by Nikki Floris,\u2019 Jordan wrote.<\/p>\n
\u2018Floris and Benavides made it unequivocally clear that ODNI and its Notification Framework were integral to the pretextual \u2018defensive\u2019\u00a0briefing meant to frustrate and obstruct congressional oversight into the Biden family\u2019s overseas influence-peddling operation,\u2019 Jordan wrote.<\/p>\n
Jordan is requesting Haines and ODNI turn over \u2018The script, including all drafts of the script, that ODNI prepared for the FBI to brief Grassley and Johnson on August 6, 2020.\u2019<\/p>\n
He is also requesting all documents and communications referring to the briefing; a list of intelligence community agencies that \u2018nominated the intelligence that served as the basis\u2019 for the briefing; and a list of individuals involved in the decision to provide the briefing.<\/p>\n
Jordan also asked for all communications between ODNI and top Democrats like then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Mark Warner, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff. A letter they sent to the FBI in July 2020 \u2018included a classified attachment with an unclassified element that attempted to tie Senator Grassley and Johnson\u2019s investigation to foreign disinformation,\u2019 Jordan said.<\/p>\n
Jordan requested the information be shared with the committee by November 15. He also requested that an official who served as the first Intelligence Community Election Threats Executive at ODNI appear for a transcribed interview. Jordan said the committee\u2019s oversight \u2018has revealed that she was personally involved with formulating ODNI\u2019s Notification Framework and has relevant information relating to the intelligence and processes used to justify the August 6 defensive briefing.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grassley and Johnson ultimately released their Hunter Biden interim report in September 2020. The report detailed their findings, including records they obtained from the U.S. Treasury Department that \u2018show potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals.\u2019<\/p>\n
The House Oversight is currently investigating the Biden family\u2019s foreign business dealings and whether President Biden was involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s investigation comes as the Weaponization Committee continues to investigate officials who falsely cast the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation.\u00a0<\/p>\n