The FBI halted an investigation into claims that the Chinese government produced fake driver’s licenses and sent them to the United States as part of a scheme to influence the 2020 presidential election.
Newly declassified FBI documents reveal the operation, allegedly designed to benefit then-candidate Joe Biden, was suppressed to avoid contradicting then-FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony before Congress.
The records, obtained by Fox News, include communications between FBI officials prior to the 2020 election. They were recently declassified by FBI Director Kash Patel and sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
Earlier this month, it was reported that Patel had discovered and declassified the original report alleging the Chinese Communist Party conspired to provide fraudulent driver’s licenses to Chinese nationals in the U.S., enabling them to vote for Joe Biden in the presidential election. The report did not indicate whether any ballots were actually cast.
The document, dated September 25, 2020, was released a day after Wray’s testimony before Congress, in which he stated that the FBI had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud before the 2020 election.
At the time, the FBI had noted that it had recalled the report “in order to re-interview the source.” It also directed “recipients” of the original report to “destroy all copies of the original report and remove the original report from all computer holdings,” Fox News reported.
Earlier this week, Patel declassified several additional documents, including records of the source’s re-interview and internal FBI communications explaining the bureau’s decision not to republish the report.
“Although the source was reengaged and provided additional context to support the initial IIR, FBI Headquarters maintained its position not to republish the report,” Assistant FBI Director Marshall Yates wrote in a letter to Grassley. “One reason cited for not releasing the IIR was because ‘the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony.’”
During a Senate hearing on September 24, 2020, Wray testified that he had found no evidence of widespread mail-in voter fraud. He added that if such evidence emerged, the FBI would investigate it “seriously” and “aggressively.”
The FBI director did concede that the Chinese government had been “expanding their influence efforts,” saying they had been “looking for different ways to take a page out of the malign foreign influence playbook that they have seen elsewhere.” But in his letter to Grassley, Yates explained that the recall of the original document was “abnormal.”
“The rationale provided to Albany staff for the recall was that Headquarters deemed the report not ‘authoritative,’ but this characterization was met with disagreement by those in the Albany office,” Yates explained.
Grassley told Fox News Digital: “These records 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.”
