FBI officials intentionally buried intelligence on Chinese interference in the 2020 election to shield then-Director Christopher Wray from politically embarrassing contradictions in his Congressional testimony, according to bombshell documents released by Senator Chuck Grassley.
Key Takeaways
- The FBI suppressed and ordered the destruction of an Intelligence Information Report (IIR) detailing a Chinese Communist Party plot to create fraudulent driver’s licenses for mail-in voting.
- Documents reveal FBI headquarters intervened to halt investigation into Chinese election interference that would have contradicted Director Wray’s testimony that no widespread mail fraud existed.
- Customs and Border Protection intercepted 1,513 shipments containing nearly 20,000 fraudulent driver’s licenses from China and Hong Kong during the 2020 election period.
- FBI Albany intelligence analysts protested the decision, warning it was politically motivated and prevented other intelligence agencies from investigating potential foreign interference.
- FBI Director Kash Patel declassified these documents as part of efforts to restore transparency and accountability to the bureau.
FBI Covered Up Chinese Election Interference
Newly declassified documents released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley reveal that FBI headquarters suppressed critical intelligence regarding Chinese Communist Party interference in the 2020 presidential election. The interference specifically involved the production of fraudulent driver’s licenses intended to facilitate mail-in votes for Joe Biden. The evidence was contained in a September 2020 Intelligence Information Report from the FBI’s Albany Field Office, which the bureau later recalled and ordered destroyed after determining it could contradict then-Director Christopher Wray’s congressional testimony claiming no evidence of widespread mail fraud existed.
“These records smack of political decision-making and prove the Wray-led FBI to be a deeply broken institution. Ahead of a high-stakes election happening amid an unprecedented global pandemic, the FBI turned its back on its national security mission. One way or the other, intelligence must be fully investigated to determine whether it’s true, or if it’s just smoke and mirrors. Chris Wray’s FBI wasn’t looking out for the American people – it was looking to save its own image,” said Chuck Grassley, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman.
Internal FBI Dissent Over Report Suppression
The records show significant disagreement within the FBI over the decision to suppress the intelligence. FBI Albany personnel, who considered their source “credible and competent,” strongly objected to headquarters’ intervention. An Albany intelligence analyst explicitly criticized the political motivations behind the report’s recall, noting that contradicting the Director’s testimony was an inappropriate reason to withhold intelligence. The analyst stated that such actions went “directly against our organization’s mission to remain apolitical” and warned about the dangers of citing “potential political implications as reasons for not putting out our information.”
“Most concerning to me, is stating the reporting would contradict with Director Wray’s testimony. I found this troubling because it implied to me that one of the reasons we aren’t putting this out is for a political reason, which goes directly against our organization’s mission to remain apolitical and simply state what we know. Likewise, at the field operational level, I do not feel it is our job to assess whether or not our intelligence aligns with the Director. … My concern is that I think it gets dangerous if we cite potential political implications as reasons for not putting out our information,” said an FBI Albany intelligence analyst.
The recall of the intelligence was ordered by FBI Headquarters, including Nikki Floris, then-Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. Following this incident, FBI Headquarters implemented new requirements that all election-related intelligence had to be coordinated through them first, effectively centralizing control of sensitive political information. The Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF)-China division, which should have aggressively investigated the intelligence, failed to do so despite substantial corroborating evidence.
Significant Evidence of Foreign Interference
The suppressed intelligence had considerable supporting evidence. Customs and Border Protection had intercepted 1,513 shipments containing 19,888 fraudulent driver’s licenses, primarily originating from China and Hong Kong during the election period. These fake IDs could have been used to facilitate fraudulent voting through the expanded mail-in ballot system implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intelligence directly contradicted Wray’s September 2020 testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee where he claimed the FBI had “not historically seen any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it is by mail or otherwise.”
“I think what I would say is this: We take all election-related threats seriously, whether it is voter fraud, voter suppression, whether it is in person, whether it is by mail. And our role is to investigate the threat actors. Now, we have not historically seen any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it is by mail or otherwise… [B]ut people should make no mistake, we are vigilant as to the threat and watching it carefully, because we are in uncharted new territory,” said Wray during his testimony.
FBI officials instructed recipients to destroy all copies of the original intelligence report and remove it from computer systems, actions that effectively prevented other intelligence agencies from investigating or corroborating the information. This suppression potentially compromised national security by blocking legitimate investigation into foreign interference in American elections. Senator Grassley has emphasized that rebuilding trust in the FBI requires transparency and accountability, praising current FBI Director Kash Patel for declassifying these documents as part of that effort.
“Now’s the time to rebuild the FBI’s trust. Director Patel’s willingness to work with me to establish renewed transparency and accountability is a critical part of that process, and I applaud him for his efforts,” said Chuck Grassley, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman.
