Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have demanded the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence release documents they say were deliberately misclassified to obstruct scrutiny of alleged Biden family wrongdoing.
In a Monday letter, Grassley, 91, and Johnson revealed that records obtained by Grassley’s office indicated the FBI “misclassified information” to impede congressional inquiries into Operation Round River, a bureau task force that compiled derogatory information on Joe and Hunter Biden before the 2020 election. The lawmakers addressed their demands to Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton.
“To-date, the available records cause serious concerns about how federal law enforcement and the Intelligence Community used its resources to downgrade allegations of criminality relating to the Biden family apparently without sufficient investigation,” Grassley and Johnson wrote in their letter.
“The records also cause concern about how federal records were stored and managed,” the lawmakers added.
The letter referenced an undated email from an FBI supervisory special agent that mentioned “classification caveats” requested by the agency’s Office of General Counsel “based on past experience with Crossfire Hurricane,” the 2016 investigation into whether the Trump campaign illegally colluded with Russian officials. Under former Director Christopher Wray, the FBI apparently “intentionally misclassified information a certain way which would result in more obstacles to obtaining access, whether it be Congress or the American people who sought it,” the Republicans charged.
Grassley’s office also received other documents indicating the Round River team may have operated as a so-called Special Access Program, the output of which was given high degrees of classification. The operation appeared to serve as a clearinghouse for claims about the Bidens — including potential “criminal information” — that were then discredited as foreign disinformation likely originating from Russia.
More than 40 confidential human sources provided information on the Biden family to multiple FBI field offices, Grassley first revealed in October 2023. The Judiciary Committee chairman noted in Monday’s letter that he has been investigating Round River since July 2022 and much of the information he’s received has been found “parked away in a hidden classified compartment.”
Grassley also highlighted a December 2019 email from FBI Section Chief Tony Riedinger to FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joe Pientka that appeared “to corroborate existing public evidence that President Trump was the target of a political hit” and should be “declassified to the fullest extent possible under the law.” The letter from Grassley and Johnson did not clarify any details of the Riedinger message.
The White House Government Transparency Task Force last week declassified a few Round River documents showing the FBI was seeking to “red flag” information from confidential informants about Biden family “corruption and other Ukraine-related topics.” The task force’s release came as the Trump administration has accelerated efforts to declassify materials related to investigations of both Biden and Trump.
In the viral moment that sparked years of Republican scrutiny, Grassley first released an unclassified FBI FD-1023 form in July 2023 detailing allegations that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden “coerced” Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky to pay them millions in exchange for helping get a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company fired. That document became central to House impeachment inquiries and fueled ongoing claims of corruption. At least one FBI source, Alexander Smirnov, was later convicted of lying about Biden family bribery allegations, though that case is now under review by Trump’s Justice Department.
Reps for the DOJ, FBI and ODNI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Grassley continues to press for broader disclosure of classified materials he argues were improperly shielded from congressional and public view.