Alleged Chinese scheme to influence 2020 election for Biden being probed by FBI, Senate Judiciary Committee
Allegations that the Chinese Communist Party manufactured fake driver's licenses and shipped them to the U.S. in a scheme to influence the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden are being investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee after the FBI revealed its own probe into the potential bombshell Monday night.
FBI Director Kash Patel located and declassified the document at the request of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley in late May and transmitted it to the committee Monday evening.
Grassley, R-Iowa, is demanding further information about the document, which alleges the plot sought to deliver fake driver's licenses to Chinese sympathizers in the U.S. who would cast a vote for candidate Biden. The document does not say whether any ballots were cast as part of the scheme.
"Chairman Grassley is in receipt of an FBI document (response) to a request he made based on legally protected whistleblower disclosures," a Grassley spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "The document alleges serious national security concerns that need to be fully investigated by the FBI."
Fox News Digital has reviewed the declassified document, which includes a "warning" section, stating it "is an information report, not finally evaluated intelligence."
"It is being shared for informational purposes but has not been fully evaluated, integrated with other information, interpreted or analyzed," the document states.
"Receiving agencies are requested not to take action based on this raw reporting without prior coordination with the FBI," the document states. "Unless a conviction in a criminal proceeding occurs, a presumption of innocence exists for any person being reported in this IIR."
The subject states, "[REDACTED] Chinese Government Production and Export of Fraudulent US Drivers 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 "source" of the document is "a collaborative source with indirect access, none of whose reporting has been corroborated for less than one year."
The "context" states that "the source obtained the information from an identified sub-source, who claimed they obtained the information from unidentified PRC government officials."
The document states that "in late August 2020, the Chinese government had produced a large amount of fraudulent United States drivers licenses that were secretly exported to the United States.
"The fraudulent drivers licenses would allow tens of thousands of Chinese students and immigrants sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party to vote for US Presidential Candidate USPER Joe ((Biden)), despite not being eligible to vote in the United States.
"China had collected private US user data from millions of TikTok accounts, to include name, ID and address, which would allow the Chinese government to use real US persons' information to create the fraudulent drivers license," the document states.
"The fraudulent drivers licenses were to include true ID number and true address of US citizens, making them difficult to detect," the document adds. "China planned to use the fraudulent drivers licenses to account for tens of thousands of mail-in votes."
FBI notations on the document, however, show the bureau had some questions.
In one spot, the agency wrote that "a persons address information was not a valid field when creating a TikTok account. It was unspecified how China would attain US address data from the application."
Another FBI comment on the document states, "[REDACTED] Source is available for re-contact."
The next page of the document states, "SUBSTANTIVE RECALL" of the information, which took place Sept. 25, 2020 — just a day after then-FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress that the FBI had not seen any coordinated voter fraud ahead of the 2020 election.
The "context" section of the document states, "[REDACTED] The source obtained the information from an identified sub-source, who claimed they obtained the information from unidentified PRC government officials."
The "warning" section of the document repeats the first warning that the allegations are part of "an information report, not finally evaluated intelligence."
The document stated the "report was recalled in order to re-interview the source." It also states that "recipients should destroy all copies of the original report and remove the original report from all computer holdings."
"Recipients should also ensure that any citation of the information in finished intelligence products draws on the SUBSTANTIVE RECALL of this report rather than the previous version."
More information is being requested from the FBI as part of the Senate's investigation.
"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," a Grassley spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The remainder of the document is heavily redacted.
"Thanks to the oversight work and partnership of Chairman Grassley, the FBI continues to provide unprecedented transparency at the people's Bureau," Patel said upon declassifying the document and transmitting it to Grassley. "To that end, we have located documents Chairman Grassley requested, which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election.
"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."
Patel added, "In accordance with Chairman Grassley's request for documents, I have immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over to the Chairman for further review."
But Grassley is seeking more information specifically related to the FBI's decision under the leadership of former Director Wray to recall the document to "re-interview the source," and "destroy all copies of the original report and remove the original report from all computing holdings."
Grassley is demanding Patel turn over all records relating to the follow-up interview, including all communications between and among agents and intelligence analysts.
"In addition, please describe all investigative steps the FBI has taken, or will take, to determine the veracity of the allegations in the IIR as well as who recalled the IIR and the basis for the recall, if that basis extends beyond the request for the source to be re-interviewed," Grassley wrote in a letter Tuesday to Patel.
"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."
The FBI reporting document came just a month after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the International Mail Facility at Chicago O'Hare International Airport seized nearly 20,000 fraudulent driver's licenses.
From January 2020 through June 30, 2020, CBP officers at that location reported seizing 1,513 shipments of fraudulent documents that included a total of 19,888 counterfeit US driver's licenses.
"The majority of these shipments were arriving from China and Hong Kong," CBP posted in a July press release.
It was not immediately clear if the seizure had any relation to the document's allegations.
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