FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to say whether a Senate Republican-led report outlining possible criminal activity by Hunter Biden shows any sign of “Russian disinformation,” several weeks after Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, forwarded their findings to the Justice Department.
The Republicans’ report consisted of hundreds of pages of evidence that the senators say demonstrate the Biden family’s potential criminal activity related to its links to China and Chinese intelligence services.
At a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing Thursday, Johnson asked Wray if he believes anything in the report could be traced back to Russian disinformation. Wray said he has examined the work of the two senators but refused to assess the quality of the report.
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“That would be a hard question for me to answer,” Wray said when asked specifically if there were any signs of Russian disinformation or influence. Johnson argued that the FBI should see his report as a source of verifiable, actionable information.
“There is no Russian disinformation,” Johnson said. “That report is completely clean of any interference of foreign influence, although we have been falsely accused, including by the chairman of this committee of spreading Russian disinformation.”
That exchange happened on the same day that House Republicans said they have evidence that President Biden was directly involved in his son Hunter’s business dealings, and that the president’s claim that he knows nothing about his son’s activities are “a lie.” House Republicans said the Biden family got rich by “offering access to the family,” and said this raises possible national security problems.
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House Republicans also dismissed the early claim from former national security officials that the Hunter Biden laptop, which provided evidence of the Biden family’s business activities that are still being investigated by the GOP, were nothing more than a Russian disinformation operation.
In the Senate, Johnson pressed Wray on whether the FBI played any role in organizing that letter, but Wray said the FBI had no involvement as far as he knows.
“I’m not aware of any involvement by the FBI in what you’re describing,” Wray said.
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Johnson said whistleblowers believe the FBI “initiated a scheme” to downplay information about Hunter Biden, and that it stands to reason that the FBI may have helped organize the letter signed by former intelligence officials. He also said if the FBI was involved, it played a role in the interference of the 2020 election.
“This letter by 51 intelligence officials, this interfered in the 2020 election to a far greater extent than anything Russia or China ever could have hoped to accomplish,” Johnson said. “You have to acknowledge that it has to be investigated. I have no faith that you will do so.”