| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, October 27th, 2024
SARATOGA, NY – In case you missed it, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal demanding the Federal Bureau of Investigations answer her questions regarding their probe into Tehran’s malign effort to interfere with President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. |
| What Is the FBI Hiding About Iran?
By Congresswoman Elise Stefanik In 2016, FBI Director James Comey failed to inform Congress about his unprecedented decision to open the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence investigation into then-candidate Donald Trump. This was an egregious breach of protocol and a failure to comply with congressional oversight. It led to the unraveling of the infamous Russia hoax peddled by rogue intelligence agencies, the Democratic Party and their media stenographers. In March 2017, as a brand-new member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I posed straightforward questions to Mr. Comey at a public hearing about his failure to notify congressional leadership, which revealed a deeply politicized and weaponized FBI. Today, on the eve of the presidential election, the FBI is doubling down on its politicization and corruption. As one of the few senior Intelligence Committee members who served through the sham impeachment that grew out of the collusion hoax, it is my duty to share with the American people what the FBI has failed to answer-and, I believe, is willfully covering up-about Iranian influence in the 2024 presidential election. On Sept. 19, the FBI delivered its final pre-election closed briefing to the Intelligence Committee on foreign malign election interference. A day earlier, the Justice Department revealed that Iranian agents had hacked the Trump campaign. I’ve been in enough high-profile oversight hearings to know that when witnesses squirm and refuse to answer questions, it usually means I’ve uncovered something concerning. At that briefing last month, after a long, panicked pause, the FBI promised to follow up with answers. The bureau obviously wanted my questions to go away and be forgotten. After the briefing, I wrote Director Christopher Wray requiring responses by Oct. 7. The avoidance games continued. First, the bureau said it would deliver answers at an in-person briefing as demanded. Then it promised written answers, which it failed to provide. The FBI has now gone silent, ignoring the congressional questions. I believe it is because top FBI officials know the answers will be bombshells. Here are my questions that the FBI is refusing to answer: 1. When and how did the FBI learn of the initial Iranian efforts targeting the Trump campaign? What individual(s) made the notification to the FBI? Who received the initial notification within the FBI?
2. When did the FBI provide notification to both presidential campaigns regarding Iran’s efforts targeting the Trump campaign?
3.When and how did the FBI become aware that Iran conducted a cyber operation into the Trump campaign and exfiltrated data? 4. Who informed the FBI of the cyber operation and who received the notification? Was the notification made by an entity or individual(s)?
5. When did the FBI notify both presidential campaigns that Iran carried out a cyber operation on the Trump campaign and successfully exfiltrated data?
6. Does the FBI consider this cyber hack election interference by a foreign government, and what remedy is available to counteract this attack? 7. Is there any intelligence that Iran carried out similar hacking activity on the Biden-Harris or Harris-Walz campaign? 8. When and how did the FBI become aware that material exfiltrated in the Iranian hacking operation of the Trump campaign was transmitted to an individual affiliated with the Biden or Harris campaign? 9. When and how did the FBI become aware that the hacked material from the Trump campaign was sent to the media?
10. What contact has the FBI had with the media regarding the publication of illegally hacked material? Which media outlets? What was the recommendation from the FBI to the media outlets regarding the hacked material?
11.Is the FBI aware of who is responsible for sending the hacked material to members of the media and the Biden or Harris campaign? If yes, who? 12. Did anyone on or associated with the Biden or Harris campaign contact the FBI, other law enforcement agencies, or anyone else in the intelligence community regarding the attempts by Iran to provide hacked Trump campaign materials? If so, what date did the Biden or Harris campaign make contact? 13. How did the FBI use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702 in this case? The FBI could easily and quickly answer these questions without impeding any investigation or revealing sources, methods or classified information. Its refusal to do so suggests it is hiding information that would reflect poorly on the FBI-perhaps an attempt to influence the election through when and whom it notified, or the complicity of Democratic presidential operatives in this foreign election interference. On this issue of critical importance to the presidential election, the Intelligence Committee knows little more than the public does. We know Iranian hackers stole sensitive information from the Trump campaign and sent it to at least three people affiliated with Joe Biden’s campaign in June. We know Iranians also sent the stolen information to Politico, the Washington Post and the New York Times. We know Iran is plotting to assassinate Mr. Trump. We know the threat against his life is active and unresolved, despite the July arrest of a Pakistani national with ties to Iran in connection with that plot. We don’t know when or how the FBI became aware, or what and when its communication was with the Biden and Harris campaigns or the Biden administration. I have seen the many ways anti-Trump political bias has corrupted the FBI’s decision making. As the Durham report confirmed, Crossfire Hurricane was an egregious and unlawful weaponization of power. It tarred President Trump’s first term with false accusations of Russian collusion. Then in 2020 the FBI attempted to subvert the democratic process yet again with its censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story. We don’t know for sure whether the FBI’s refusal to answer questions on the 2024 Iranian threat is another example of the bureau’s political bias at work, but given recent history, you’ll forgive my suspicion. I know a corrupt coverup when I see one. It is Congress’s constitutional duty to hold the executive branch, including the FBI, accountable to the American people. We won’t tolerate a rogue FBI withholding information on an issue as important as this—a foreign enemy attempting to undermine, hack and kill the leading candidate for president. Click HERE to read House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik’s op-ed. |
