‘Political infection’: Senior senator says FBI tampered with Biden family probes

More than 40 confidential sources were providing information to the FBI about the Biden family and they produced credible evidence of corruption, the Senate’s most senior lawmaker said Wednesday.

But the allegations ran into resistance from biased officials at the FBI and Justice Department, who led an effort to hinder probes into President Biden, his brother James Biden and his son Hunter Biden, said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.

The senator also said he has found out that the FBI had information as far back as October 2020 that contradicted then-candidate Joe Biden’s claims that he wasn’t aware of Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

That includes an FBI interview with a former Hunter Biden business partner who “provided first-hand knowledge as an eye and ear witness to Joe Biden’s involvement in potentially criminal schemes with Hunter Biden,” Mr. Grassley wrote in a letter demanding answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Mr. Grassley suggested the FBI and Justice Department suffered from a “political infection” and said is rotting the two storied agencies from the inside.

“Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers, there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family,” Mr. Grassley wrote.

“Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director, but also line agents and prosecutors. Our Republic cannot survive such a political infection and you have an obligation to this country to clear the air,” he added.

The White House has dismissed charges of the president benefitting from his son’s business dealings, repeating Mr. Biden’s insistence he didn’t know what Hunter was doing.

Mr. Grassley is the lawmaker who first revealed the full FBI record of accusations by a source that said Ukrainian gas company Burisma hired Hunter Biden to gain Biden family political protection from a corruption investigation inside Ukraine.

The source said Burisma’s CEO planned to make payments to both Hunter Biden and his father.

Mr. Grassley detailed an intricate process at the FBI of trying to validate the accusations, and a disturbing attempt to discredit the allegations by labeling them foreign disinformation.

He said a follow-up review by two U.S. attorneys’ offices found no indicators of known foreign disinformation, which makes the original disinformation claims all the more suspect.

“As such, it’s essential that we examine the alleged attempts by FBI personnel to sweep it under the rug,” the senator said.

Mr. Grassley said he wants to interview 25 FBI and Justice Department employees.

He also demanded to know how the FBI handled the information from its October 2020 interview with Hunter Biden’s business partner, as well as handling of other informants’ information.