House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Tuesday that he will move contempt of Congress charges against FBI Director Christopher Wray for missing a deadline to comply with a subpoena.
"I have a message for FBI Director Christopher Wray: If he misses today's deadline to turn over subpoenaed documents to Congress, I am prepared to move contempt charges against him," McCarthy said during a Fox News interview on Tuesday.
I have a message for FBI Director Christopher Wray: If he misses today's deadline to turn over subpoenaed documents to Congress, I am prepared to move contempt charges against him. pic.twitter.com/D3hyW3VIpX
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) May 30, 2023
Wray did miss the May 30 deadline to turn over FD-1023 forms pertaining to President Joe Biden. According to chair James Comer (R-KY), a whistleblower told the House Oversight Committee about the form, which he said details “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
The committee wants to see the form, but Wray says he has to protect the confidentiality of the source.
Wray offered to let committee members see a redacted version of the form in a secure location, but Comer said that wasn't good enough.
Congress has oversight over the FBI and needs to have access to the document in question, both McCarthy and Comer insisted.
“Instead of working with the Committee, the FBI has refused to even acknowledge whether the FD-1023 form exists. And the agency has made no attempts to engage in a reasonable accommodation process,” Comer wrote in a May 24 letter to Wray. “The FBI’s refusal to produce this single document is obstructionist.”
It seems like Wray wants to protect not the source, but the FBI from any consequences of having this form and doing nothing with it.
He also wants to protect Biden from any evidence that he was, in fact, involved in corruption and illegal payouts.
The agency claims it plans to cooperate but gave no details about what that cooperation would look like.
“The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have, and we continue to be in touch with members of Congress regarding this request,” the agency reiterated in its statement.
House Republicans have had enough, and are going to insist that laws be followed and wrongdoers punished.
The request for contempt charges has to go through the Justice Department, so I'm not holding my breath, but we will see.
