FBI Director Kash Patel forked over a trove of documents to Congress detailing an alleged Chinese campaign to meddle in the 2020 election that involved thousands of bogus US driver’s licenses.
Precise details about the alleged effort are murky, but a confidential source alleged the Chinese planned to use those licenses for thousands of mail-in votes to benefit former Vice President Joe Biden, a spokesperson for the FBI honcho explained to The Post.
Authorities had caught wind of the alleged plot around August 2020, but intelligence reports on it were recalled for reasons that aren’t fully clear, the spokesperson added.
US Customs and Border Protection seized almost 20,000 fake licenses around that time.
Biden won the swing states of Arizona and Georgia by more than 10,000 and 12,000 votes, respectively, and President Donald Trump’s margin of defeat in Wisconsin was more than 20,000 votes.
Patel declassified the intelligence report and sent it over to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for additional vetting.
“The FBI has located documents which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP,” Patel revealed on X.
“I have immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over to the Chairman Grassley [sic] for further review.”
Grassley had raised concerns that the intelligence wasn’t fully probed — despite evidence of the bogus US driver’s licenses — and pushed for the bureau to revisit the matter.
“Thanks to the oversight work and partnership of Chairman Grassley, the FBI continues to provide unprecedented transparency at the people’s Bureau,” Patel told Just the News, which first reported on this story. “To that end, we have located documents Chairman Grassley requested.”
“Specifically, these include allegations of plans from the CCP to manufacture fake driver’s licenses and ship them into the United States for the purpose of facilitating fraudulent mail-in ballots — allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public.”
A somewhat new confidential source had tipped off authorities to the plot. The extent to which the FBI took any steps to counter the scheme at the time is not fully clear.
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“Chairman Grassley is in receipt of an FBI document responsive to a request he made based on legally protected whistleblower disclosures. The document alleges serious national security concerns that need to be fully investigated by the FBI,” a Grassley spokesperson told The Post.
“Grassley is requesting additional documentation from the FBI to verify the production, and is urging the FBI to do its due diligence to investigate why the document was recalled, who recalled it and inform the American people of its findings.”
Following the FBI’s delivery of those documents, Grassley sent another request to Patel seeking internal communications of at least three key officials who were involved with the decision-making process regarding the Intelligence Information Report (IIR).
“Lastly, explain why the FBI under your predecessor required the original IIR to be destroyed, whether this practice is consistent with the FBI’s past and current practice, and how it comports with federal record preservation requirements,” Grassley added in the letter.
Concerns about the Chinese mass-producing fake licenses have swirled for some time.
Back in 2012, for example, several senators, including Grassley and retiring Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), penned a letter to the Chinese ambassador urging Beijing to crack down on production of fake US driver’s licenses and other documents.
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At the time, the senators were concerned about reports that some 1,700 fake driver’s licenses had been confiscated at O’Hare Airport in Chicago.
source: nypost.com/fbi-delivers-intel-to-congress-on-alleged-chinese-plot-to-interfere-in-2020-election/
