Its not true. It wasnt closed down, William Barr told The Federalist on Tuesday in response to Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskins claim that the former attorney general and his handpicked prosecutor had ended an investigation into a confidential human sources allegation that Joe Biden had agreed to a $5 million bribe. On the contrary, Barr stressed, it was sent to Delaware for further investigation. <\/p>\n
Former Attorney General Barr went on the record with The Federalist following statements Raskin made to the press Monday afternoon. Soon after attending a closed-door meeting with House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and the FBI at which lawmakers reviewed the FD-1023 form summarizing a CHSs detailed allegations that then-Vice President Joe Bidenagreed to accept money from a foreign national to affect policy decisions Raskin spoke to the media. <\/p>\n
What I learned, Raskin claimed, was that Attorney General Barr named Scott Brady, who was the U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania, to head up a group of prosecutors who would look into all the allegations related to Ukraine. <\/p>\n
After Rudy Giuliani surfaced these allegations, Raskin continued, Bradys team looked into the FD-1023 and in August determined that there was no grounds to escalate from an initial assessment to a preliminary investigation, and so they called an end to the investigation. <\/p>\n
The Maryland Democrat then reiterated his claim that this was under Attorney General William Barr and his handpicked prosecutor Mr. Brady, who was a Trump appointee. They were the ones who decided there were no further grounds for investigation, Raskins claimed, adding: If there is a complaint, it is with Attorney General William Barr, the Trump Justice Department, and the team that the Trump administration appointed to look into it. <\/p>\n
Raskin would then double down on his claim that it was Barr and Brady who closed down the investigation, issuing a press release saying that in August 2020, Barr and his hand-picked U.S. Attorney signed off on closing an assessment into the FD-1023 form that memorialized the CHSs claims. <\/p>\n
But thats just not true, according to the former attorney general. Instead, the confidential human sources claims detailed in the FD-1023 were sent to the Delaware U.S. attorneys office for further investigation, according to Barr. <\/p>\n
That, however, was just one of Raskins deceptions: The ranking member of the House Oversight Committee also falsely suggested the CHSs allegations were related to the investigation of information Rudy Giuliani had unearthed of the Biden family corruption in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Not so, according to an individual familiar with the investigation who told The Federalist that the CHS and the FD-1023 summary of his statement were both unrelated to Rudy Giuliani and not derived from any information Giuliani provided. This corroborates the House Oversight Committees representation that the June 30, 2020, FD-1023 stands on its own and was not part of the documents Giuliani provided the FBI in January 2020. <\/p>\n
In fact, according to the House Oversight Committee, the FD-1023 in question contains information from the FBIs confidential human source dating back to another FD-1023 generated in 2017, which completely removes Giuliani from the mix. <\/p>\n
Raskins office did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n
These new revelations prove significant for two reasons. First, theres the underlying scandal of the FBIs alleged failure to investigate the FD-1023 and FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Autens opening of an assessment in August 2020 to discredit that information, which caused investigative activity to cease. <\/p>\n
Knowing that the FD-1023 originated in Bradys Western District of Pennsylvania proves explosive because Grassleys whistleblower alleged that in September 2020, FBI headquarters placed the information contained in Autens assessment in a restricted-access sub-file that only the particular agents who uncovered the CHSs info could access.How then could the FBI agents in Delaware further investigate the allegations? <\/p>\n
And those allegations, further detailed by Comer on Tuesday, are shocking. A trusted confidential human source obtained information from a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Biden, Comer told The Federalist. So the CHS didnt just pass on information from some random third party: He spoke directly with the individual who claimed to have bribed Biden. <\/p>\n
FBI headquarters branding that information as disinformation without undertaking an appropriate investigation is outrageous especially since the Delaware U.S. attorneys office was directed to further investigate the FD-1023. <\/p>\n
The second scandal is equally as large because it reaches the top of the FBI: Director Christopher Wray. <\/p>\n
Wray may well have been in the dark about FBI headquarters falsely labeling the FD-1023 as misinformation and secreting it away from other agents. But framing the intel from the highly credible longtime FBI CHS as coming from Giuliani reeks of a cover-up. And suggesting that Barr and Brady closed down an investigation into the FD-1023 when it was instead sent to Delaware for further investigation is a cover-up. <\/p>\n
The more the FBI leak and coverup machine spins for President Biden, the worse the bureau looks, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told The Federalist upon learning of Barrs statement. Enough is enough. Its past time for the FBI to come clean and show their work if they have any hope of salvaging their own credibility. <\/p>\n
Comer went further, telling The Federalist, The FBI is attempting a coverup, and Democrats are doing their bidding by lying to the American people. <\/p>\n
The FBI must produce this record to the House Oversight Committees custody, Comer continued, and if not, we will take action on Thursday to hold Director Wray in contempt of Congress. <\/p>\n
Given Barrs statement, that should be the least of Wrays concerns. <\/p>\n
Mollie Hemingway contributed to this report. <\/p>\n
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist's senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prizethe law schools highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity. <\/p>\n
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EXCLUSIVE: Barr Confirms Raskin Lied About Biden Bribery Probe - The Federalist<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Its not true. It wasnt closed down, William Barr told The Federalist on Tuesday in response to Democrat Rep. Continue reading