Senator Chuck Grassley has released newly declassified FBI records showing that Bureau leadership suppressed an intelligence report in 2020 about Chinese election interference, citing concerns that the information would contradict then-FBI Director Christopher Wray’s congressional testimony.
The records show that on September 25, 2020, the FBI’s Albany Field Office issued an Intelligence Information Report (IIR) based on information from a Confidential Human Source (CHS) alleging the Chinese government was producing tens of thousands of fraudulent driver’s licenses to facilitate mail-in voting for then-candidate Joe Biden. The FBI’s Counterintelligence Division at headquarters quickly ordered the report recalled, halting any further distribution to field offices or the intelligence community.
According to the records, the IIR had initially passed internal review and was described by Albany officials as having been disseminated in “textbook fashion.” A re-interview of the CHS reportedly yielded further details that supported the initial claims, with Albany officials describing the source as “competent” and “authentic,” with confidence in their sub-sourcing rated in the “9-10 range.”
An FBI Albany analyst flagged the recall decision as politically motivated, writing, “Most concerning to me, is stating the reporting would contradict with Director Wray’s testimony.” The analyst noted that such reasoning “goes directly against our organization’s mission to remain apolitical and simply state what we know.”
Wray had testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee just one day prior that the FBI had seen no evidence of coordinated national voter fraud, including by mail. Headquarters officials later formalized a new policy requiring all election-related raw reporting to undergo headquarters coordination before release.
The Foreign Influence Task Force’s China unit (FITF-China) never approved a reissue of the IIR. Grassley said the FBI confirmed to him last week that FITF-China had not aggressively pursued the allegations, despite corroborating intergovernmental reporting and investigative leads.
Grassley tied the episode to broader concerns about FBI politicization and welcomed the Trump administration’s recent decision to disband FITF, calling it “a positive step given what the task force had been twisted into.”
