The House Judiciary Committee is demanding the FBI provide access to a newly identified investigative form that could contain additional information about alleged payments made to the Biden family from foreign entities.
In a letter sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) requested the agency provide a form dated in March 2017 that contains previously unreported information related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. The request stems from testimony given to the committee in October by a Trump-appointed prosecutor who said his office found information about Hunter Biden that “had not been developed” in previous reports.
Former U.S. Attorney Scott Brady testified before the Judiciary Committee on Oct. 23, 2023, to detail his experience investigating Hunter Biden’s business involvement in Ukraine and how he had been met with “very unusual” approval processes by the Department of Justice. Brady was assigned by the DOJ in January 2020 to vet the credibility of information provided by the public related to the department’s inquiry into the president’s son.
While investigating that information, Brady told lawmakers his team “developed” additional information that had previously gone uncovered, prompting him to push the DOJ to reinterview the confidential source. That led to information included in an FD-1023 form dated in June 2020 that accused Joe and Hunter Biden of accepting bribes from a Ukrainian energy company, allegations that are the center of Republicans’ impeachment investigation.
An FD-1023 is an investigative form the FBI uses to record information from confidential human sources, often referenced as a CHS by investigators.
During his testimony, Brady referenced information that had not been previously provided to the committee, leading House investigators to demand access “to evaluate whether sufficient grounds exist to consider drafting articles of impeachment” against Joe Biden.
“Because the 2020 FD-1023 includes such serious allegations of bribery and the involvement of President Biden in Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and because material in the 2017 FD-1023 led to the development of the 2020 FD-1023, the Committee needs access to the 2017 FD-1023,” Jordan wrote in his letter.
The 2020 FD-1023 form was first published by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) last year, containing explosive allegations that Joe and Hunter Biden accepted $5 million each in bribes so that the then-vice president would use his authority to protect a Ukrainian energy company where his son held a lucrative board position. Although that accusation has not been proven, Brady said the source who provided the information is highly credible and has been relied on for several DOJ investigations in the past.
While vetting that form in 2020, Brady said he was able to confirm the confidential source’s travel and meeting schedule lined up with those mentioned in the report. However, he noted he could not confirm the substance of the allegations because his assignment was limited to public information and he lacked certain investigative tools.
However, he told lawmakers his team “felt that there were sufficient indicia of credibility in this 1023 to pass it on to an office that had a predicated grand jury investigation.”
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The request is the latest development in House Republicans’ monthslong investigation into the Biden family, which GOP lawmakers are hoping to use to draft articles of impeachment against the president.
That inquiry is looking into three main things, all of which relate to Hunter Biden: whether Joe Biden improperly used his position of power to enrich himself and his family, whether he used his influence to pressure the Department of Justice to help his son avoid criminal charges, and how involved he was in his family’s foreign business dealings.