by Jerry Dunleavy
A top Republican senator released FBI emails Tuesday appearing to show the bureau did not pursue intelligence indicating Communist China was looking to hijack the 2020 presidential election with a potential mail-in ballot scheme to assist then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The bureau appeared, based on the emails, afraid it would undercut then-FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assurances to Congress that foreign meddling did not pose a threat to the presidential race.
The internal FBI emails were made public by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, “revealing the FBI suppressed intelligence of alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 election” to “insulate” then-FBI Wray “from criticism, after Wray provided inaccurate and contradictory testimony to Congress,” the Iowa Republican senator’s office said in a press release.
Wray testified in September before the House and Senate in 2020, before which which he downplayed the potential for significant foreign meddling in the 2020 election, dismissed the possibility of foreign mail-in ballot fraud and said he considered disinformation to be the biggest threat to the presidential election.
Just the News published a story last month revealing that a confidential human source told FBI counter-intelligence in the summer of 2020 that China’s communist government was seeking to meddle in the impending election to help then-candidate Biden, according to a raw intelligence report distributed to federal agencies that was reviewed and made public by Just the News.
The Intelligence Information Report (“IIR”) in question originated with the FBI’s Albany Field Office.
“These records smack of political decision-making and prove the Wray-led FBI to be a deeply broken institution,” Grassley said on Tuesday. “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. 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.”
Grassley made public 47 pages of partially redacted internal FBI emails from the fall of 2020, and the senator also released a letter that current FBI Assistant Director Marshall Yates wrote last week in which he summarized the declassified records.
“Following a directive from FBI Headquarters, the IIR was recalled even though ‘the IIR was coordinated and disseminated in textbook fashion.’ This IIR prompted significant attention throughout FBI Headquarters,” Yates said in his three-page letter to Grassley.
“For instance, according to an email requesting the recall, it was noted that the ‘IIR AL sent out today is getting a lot of attention from all HQ divisions.’ The recall was issued to ‘reinterview’ the source. Although the source was reengaged and provided additional context to support the initial IIR, FBI Headquarters maintained its position not to republish the report.”
The FBI official added: “One reason cited for not releasing the IIR was because ‘the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony.’ Based on conversations with key individuals involved, it was conveyed that the recall of the IIR was abnormal. The rationale provided to Albany staff for the recall was that Headquarters deemed the report not ‘authoritative,’ but this characterization was met with disagreement by those in the Albany office. Internal emails reflect that Albany staff had concerns that suppressing the IIR would be ‘dangerous if we cite potential political implications as reasons for not putting out our information,’ emphasizing that it was not the role of analysts to align intelligence with public testimony.”
The raw and unverified intelligence report in question was bluntly titled “Chinese Government Production and Export of Fraudulent US Driver’s Licenses to Chinese Sympathizers in the United States, in Order to Create Tens of Thousands of Fraudulent Mail-in Votes for US Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, in late August 2020.”
The report was soon recalled, with spy agencies told to delete the information before they had a chance to properly investigate its claims.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino alleged in June that the bureau’s prior leadership “chose to play politics” and hide evidence from the American people regarding a Chinese plot to hijack the 2020 U.S. election with fake mail-in ballots for Biden.
Yates wrote last week that the FBI’s Abany staff had “warned against FBI assuming the role of sole gatekeeper for the Intelligence Community, emphasizing that suppressing field-generated reporting could deprive other IC elements of the opportunity to corroborate or discredit intelligence.”
“Although an Intelligence Analyst requested further research and re-engagement with the source, Headquarters ultimately decided not to issue a new IIR, citing a lack of additional substantiating information, even after the source was reinterviewed,” the FBI official wrote. “As seen in today’s production, the source appeared to be reliable, and the FBI did not close the source for cause or lack of credible information.”
Yates also said further emails showed that the now-defunct Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) “did not approve reissuance of the IIR, citing concerns about authoritativeness and the potential for disinformation by foreign actors” but that “other than a request for information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, we have found no information to indicate that FITF-China aggressively investigated the reported information, despite corroborating intergovernmental reporting and logical investigative leads.”
The newly-released FBI emails show that FBI officials Nikki Floris and Tonya Ugoretz were allegedly behind the recall of the Albany intelligence report, and that FBI official Laura Dehmlow also appeared to be involved in the recall.
“I was contacted by Cyber DAD and CD DAD. They are directly requesting it be recalled until he is re-interviewed,” an email from a redacted FBI Counterintelligence Division official said on September 25, 2020.
A redacted FBI official who appeared to be based in Albany asked, “Can who [sic] give me the names of the DADs so we can cite that? Thanks.”
The redacted counterintelligence bureau official replied, “Yup. Nikki Floris (CD) and Tonya Ugoretz (Cyber). They are over the Intel shops.”
The emails also show a yet-redacted FBI official shared an email on the “Recent Release of Counterintelligence IIRs — [REDACTED]” on September 28, 2020.
The FBI information report in question was “recalled at the direction of DAD Nikki Floris, Counterintelligence, and DAD Tonya Ugoretz, Cyber” according to that email, which listed it as a “SUBSTANTIVE RECALL.”
Ugoretz’s LinkedIn states that she was the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division at the time, and Grassley said that Floris was the then-Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.
Grassley noted in his Tuesday press release that “months before dismissing the IIR, Floris provided an unnecessary briefing to Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) regarding their investigation into the Biden family” and that “the briefing — though classified — was later leaked to the press in an effort to falsely smear the senators’ investigation as Russian disinformation.”
A still-redacted FBI official said in a September 30, 2020 email that “a new 1023 [FBI interview] will be needed, that will have updated date of acquisition and contact, with an updated source context statement. AND it will have to run the gamut at HQ for review/approval. Again, the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony.”
The redacted Unit Chief for China for the FBI’s FITF also weighed in the next month.
“Hi Albany… Wanted to reiterate that we are not approving a reissue, specifically because of our concerns that the reporting is not authoritative,” the FBI unit chief said on October 8, 2020.
The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee and court filings have previously identified Laura Dehmlow — who went on to become the Section Chief of the FBI’s FITF — as having been the China Unit Chief for the FITF in October 2020.
Wray had told the House and Senate in September 2020 that the FBI’s FITF was established in 2017 “to identify and counteract malign foreign influence operations targeting the United States” and that it was only after the 2018 midterm elections that the FITF moved on from being “focused solely on the threat posed by Russia.” He claimed the FITF expanded its scope “to confront malign foreign operations of China, Iran, and other global adversaries.”
Yates also wrote last week that, because of this saga, FBI Headquarters had set a new requirement on all FBI field offices for the 2020 election — that “all raw reporting concerning the election will now require HQ coordination, which was not required” before.
“Overall, the records produced today reflect the broader sentiment within the Albany Field Office that the recall decision and resulting suppression of the IIR raised serious questions about the integrity of the intelligence reporting process and its susceptibility to perceived political pressures,” the FBI official wrote.
Last month, Patel turned over to Congress earlier the long-hidden intelligence report raising concerns that China had plans to mass-produce fake U.S. driver’s licenses to carry out a scheme to swing the 2020 election to Biden with fake mail-in ballots.
The FBI information report revealed by Just the News last month had been sent as an uncorroborated advisory to U.S. intelligence agencies on August 24, 2020. It was then suddenly recalled in September 2020 — the day after Wray testified to Congress that he had not seen any large-scale voter fraud efforts.
Wray pointed to Russia as the biggest election influence threat and downplayed the possibility that foreign adversaries could facilitate voter fraud in the 2020 election when speaking to the House in mid-September 2020.
“The intelligence community’s consensus is that Russia continues to try to influence our election primarily through what we would call malign foreign influence,” Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee in mid-September 2020, arguing that “we will not tolerate foreign interference in our election.”
Wray said that “we have not seen, to date, a coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election.”
When asked about his biggest concern related to election security in 2020, Wray replied, “What concerns me the most is the steady drumbeat of misinformation and sort of amplification of smaller cyber intrusions that contribute over time — I worry they will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of American voters and citizens in the validity of their vote. I think that would be a perception, not reality. I think Americans can and should have confidence in our election system and certainly in our democracy.”
Trump took to his Twitter account to critique Wray’s comments.
“But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump wrote in 2020, adding, “They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out!”
Wray appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee in late September 2020, where he was asked if voting by mail was secure.
“Well, senator, what I think I would say is this: we take all election-related threats seriously… 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,” Wray said. “Certainly to change a federal election outcome by mounting that kind of fraud at scale would be a major challenge for an adversary, but people should make no mistake, we’re vigilant as to the threat and watching it carefully because we’re in uncharted territory.”
The FBI director was asked if he was saying that he had not seen any widespread fraud by mail, and Wray vowed that “that’s something we would investigate seriously and aggressively.”
The FBI information report containing allegations of a Chinese plan to use thousands of fraudulent driver’s licenses to help Biden defeat Trump was recalled shortly after Wray’s congressional testimony.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had said in July 2020 that “fraudulent driver’s licenses … continue to be found by CBP officers” at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. From January through June 2020, CBP said its officers had “seized 1,513 shipments with fraudulent documents — a total of 19,888 counterfeit US drivers’ licenses” and that “the majority of these shipments were arriving from China and Hong Kong.” The CBP press release did not directly link the fraudulent licenses to potential voter fraud efforts.
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Jerry Dunleavy is a reporter for Just the News.
Photo “Senator Chuck Grassley” by Senator Chuck Grassley.
The post Grassley Shares Declassified Emails on FBI’s ‘Suppressed Intel’ on China’s Potential 2020 Meddling first appeared on The Arizona Sun Times.
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Author: Just the News
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