Internal records point to FBI playing politics with evidence of China tampering in 2020 election

FBI officials suppressed intelligence pointing to Chinese interference in the 2020 presidential election, and newly revealed bureau documents show they likely did it to avoid embarrassing FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.

In testimony to a Senate committee on Sept. 24, 2020, Mr. Wray downplayed the threat of a voter fraud plot in the elections. The next day, according to the documents, FBI officials recalled an investigative report showing China was using voter fraud to boost Democratic candidate Joseph R. Biden in the presidential race.

The internal FBI documents were made public Tuesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican.

FBI emails obtained by Mr. Grassley revealed that officials at FBI headquarters halted the investigation because “the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony.”

Mr. Grassley said the 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,” he said. “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.”

The Washington Times reached out to the FBI for comment.

The FBI declassified and provided the records to Mr. Grassley, who requested the documents based on information from an FBI whistleblower.

In the September 2020 testimony, Mr. Wray insisted that “the FBI took 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 seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it is by mail or otherwise,” he said.

FBI Director Kash Patel recently disclosed that an intelligence report in late 2020 raised concerns that Beijing mass-produced fake American driver’s licenses to skew the 2020 election with phony mail-in ballots supporting Mr. Biden in his election win.

The emails made public by Mr. Grassley now give a glimpse into the agency’s decision on Sept. 25, 2020, the day after Mr. Wray’s testimony, to recall and suppress an intelligence information report on the Chinese voter fraud plot involving thousands of counterfeit IDs.

The report from the FBI’s Albany field office included information from a confidential human source that the Chinese government was producing “tens of thousands” of fraudulent driver’s licenses to generate mail-in votes for Mr. Biden.

The FBI Albany official described the source as “competent” and “authentic in his/her reporting,” and described the confidence in his/her subsourcing as a “9-10 range. Very, very confident.”

An assistant section chief in the FBI’s counterintelligence division said the report immediately generated “a lot of attention from all [headquarters] divisions.”

Upon receiving the report, an FBI Albany official said, “We have no reason to recall at this point.”

Minutes later, the Albany field office was instructed to recall the report at the direct request of officials at FBI headquarters, including Nikki Floris, deputy assistant director of the counterintelligence division.

The bureau said, however, that the allegations were never fully investigated despite showing initial signs of credibility because of the FBI’s sudden and “abnormal” decision to halt the investigation and bury the existence of the investigative report.

This thwarted any further FBI field offices and other intelligence community components from accessing or reviewing the document.

After the report was recalled, officials at FBI headquarters informed field offices that “all raw reporting concerning the election will now require [headquarters] coordination,” which had not been previously required.

According to the newly revealed documents, the FBI did this because “the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony.”

An FBI Albany intelligence analyst described the series of events that led to the alleged suppression of information about the Chinese election interference plot.

“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,” the analyst said.

Customs and Border Protection officers made 1,513 seizures containing fraudulent documents, including 19,888 counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses, at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in the first six months of 2020.

CPB said most of the shipments arrived from Hong Kong and China.

“These counterfeit driver’s licenses can lead to disastrous consequences,” Ralph Piccirilli, CBP’s Chicago port director, said in a statement at the time. “Criminal organizations use these counterfeit IDs to avoid attracting attention to their illegal activities.”

Most of the fake licenses were for college-age students, and some had the same photo but different names. The CPB said the barcode on fake Michigan licenses that were seized worked, indicating a high degree of sophistication.

• Bill Gertz contributed to this report.