Grassley To Garland and Wray - Hunter Biden - July 25, 2022

July 25, 2022
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable Merrick Garland

Attorney General
Department of Justice
The Honorable Christopher Wray

Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray:
On May 31, 2022, I wrote to you regarding likely violations of Federal laws, regulations
and Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) guidelines by Assistant Special Agent in Charge
(“ASAC”) Timothy Thibault of the Washington Field Office (“WFO”) based on a pattern of
active public partisanship in his then public social media content. In that letter, I noted that
Congress has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that the Executive Branch executes the law
and uses taxpayer money appropriated to it in accordance with congressional intent. In
furtherance of that constitutional responsibility, Congress has an obligation to investigate the
Executive Branch for fraud, waste, abuse and gross mismanagement – acts which undermine
faith in the American people’s governmental institutions. Those constitutional and legislative
responsibilities apply to this letter to you. My letter also invited individuals, including current
and former government employees, to contact me and my office to confidentially report
allegations of fraud, waste, abuse and gross mismanagement by FBI and Justice Department
(“Department”) officials including, but not limited to, ASAC Thibault. In response, my office
has received a significant number of protected communications from highly credible
whistleblowers.
The information provided to my office involves concerns about the FBI’s receipt and use
of derogatory information relating to Hunter Biden, and the FBI’s false portrayal of acquired
evidence as disinformation. The volume and consistency of these allegations substantiate their
credibility and necessitate this letter.
First, it’s been alleged that the FBI developed information in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s
criminal financial and related activity. It is further alleged that in August 2020, FBI Supervisory
Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters
(“FBI HQ”) team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation
and caused investigative activity to cease. Based on allegations, verified and verifiable
derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation.
Page 2 of 4
The basis for how the FBI HQ team selected the specific information for inclusion in
Auten’s assessment is unknown, but in more than one instance the focus of the FBI HQ team’s
attention involved derogatory information about Hunter Biden. Accordingly, the allegations
provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI
officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it
was disinformation.
Importantly, it’s been alleged to my office that Auten’s assessment was opened in August
2020, which is the same month that Senator Johnson and I received an unsolicited and
unnecessary briefing from the FBI that purportedly related to our Biden investigation and a
briefing for which the contents were later leaked in order paint the investigation in a false light.
As Senator Johnson and I have publicly noted, on July 13, 2020, then-Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer, Senator Mark Warner, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Adam Schiff
sent a letter, with a classified attachment, to the FBI to express a purported belief that Congress
was the subject of a foreign disinformation campaign. 1 The July 13, 2020, letter included
unclassified elements that, among other things, unsuccessfully attempted to tie our investigative
work to foreign disinformation. Those unclassified elements were later leaked to the press to try
and smear our Biden investigation as unrelated foreign disinformation. Then, on July 16, 2020,
then-Ranking Member Peters and then-Ranking Member Wyden requested a briefing on matters
related to my and Senator Johnson’s Biden investigation from the very same FBI HQ team that
discredited the derogatory Hunter Biden information. 2 The concurrent opening of Auten’s
assessment, the efforts by the FBI HQ team and the efforts by the FBI to provide an unnecessary
briefing to me and Senator Johnson that provided our Democratic colleagues fodder to falsely
accuse us of advancing foreign disinformation draws serious concern.
Second, it has been alleged that in September 2020, investigators from the same FBI HQ
team were in communication with FBI agents responsible for the Hunter Biden information
targeted by Auten’s assessment. The FBI HQ team’s investigators placed their findings with
respect to whether reporting was disinformation in a restricted access sub-file reviewable only by
the particular agents responsible for uncovering the specific information. This is problematic
because it does not allow for proper oversight and opens the door to improper influence.
1 Letter from Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Vice Chairman Mark Warner, S. Select Comm. on Intelligence, Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, and Chairman Adam Schiff, H. Select Comm. on Intelligence, to Fed. Bureau of Investigation (July 13, 2020),
https://intelligence house.gov/uploadedfiles/20200713_big_4_letter_to_fbi_director_wray_-_defensive_briefing_signed.pdf; see
also Press Release, Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Warner Send Letter to FBI Director Requesting
Defensive Counterintelligence Briefing for All Members (July 20, 2020), https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/72020-2.
2 Letter from Ranking Member Ron Wyden, S. Comm. on Fin., and Ranking Member Gary Peters, S. Comm. on HSGAC., to
Chairman Chuck Grassley, S. Comm. on Fin., and Chairman Ron Johnson, S. Comm. on HSGAC. (July 16, 2020),
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/200716_Letter_PetersWyden_IntelligenceBriefingRequest.pdf.
Page 3 of 4
Third, in October 2020, an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was
ordered closed at the direction of ASAC Thibault. My office has been made aware that FBI
agents responsible for this information were interviewed by the FBI HQ team in furtherance of
Auten’s assessment. It’s been alleged that the FBI HQ team suggested to the FBI agents that the
information was at risk of disinformation; however, according to allegations, all of the reporting
was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants. In addition, ASAC Thibault
allegedly ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required by FBI
guidelines. Despite the matter being closed in such a way that the investigative avenue might be
opened later, it’s alleged that FBI officials, including ASAC Thibault, subsequently attempted to
improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future.
The aforementioned allegations put a finer point on concerns that I have raised for many
years about political considerations infecting the decision-making process at the Justice
Department and FBI. If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI
are – and have been – institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United
States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the
law. Attorney General Garland and Director Wray, simply put, based on the allegations that I’ve
received from numerous whistleblowers, you have systemic and existential problems within your
agencies. You have an obligation to the country to take these allegations seriously, immediately
investigate and take steps to institute fixes to these and other matters before you.
In light of the serious allegations and my ongoing investigation into Justice Department
and FBI misconduct, I expect you to provide the following no later than August 8, 2022, as a
preliminary matter so that Congress can perform an objective and independent review of the
alleged misconduct:
1. The case file for the Auten assessment.
2. All records 3 derived from reporting on derogatory information linked to Hunter Biden,
James Biden, and their foreign business relationships that was overseen under the
approval, guidance and purview of ASAC Thibault from January 1, 2020, to the present.
3. All records related to derogatory information on Hunter Biden, James Biden, and their
foreign business relationships.
4. All leads sent to the WFO that were under the purview of ASAC Thibault that were
ordered closed by ASAC Thibault and/or denied for opening by the Justice Department’s
Public Integrity Section.
3 “Records” include any written, recorded, or graphic material of any kind, including letters, memoranda, reports,
notes, electronic data (e-mails, email attachments, and any other electronically-created or stored information),
calendar entries, inter-office communications, meeting minutes, phone/voice mail or recordings/records of verbal
communications, and drafts (whether or not they resulted in final documents).
Page 4 of 4
5. All opened and closed cases initiated by the WFO that were under the purview of ASAC
Thibault that were ordered closed by ASAC Thibault and/or denied for opening by the
Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section.
6. With respect to the August 2020 FBI briefing given to Senator Johnson and me:
a. A copy of the FBI 302 for the briefing;

b. All intelligence reporting, products, and analysis that formed the basis of the
briefing;
c. The name(s) of the person(s) who recommended that Senator Johnson and I be
briefed;
d. A description of the process for deciding to brief us; and
e. All records, including emails, relating to the briefing.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary

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July 25, 2022

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

The Honorable Merrick Garland

The Honorable Christopher Wray

Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray:

1. The case file for the Auten assessment.

a. A copy of the FBI 302 for the briefing;

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