Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel claims to have declassified a report on alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 US presidential election, in which former President Joe Biden defeated the now-President Donald Trump.
According to Patel, the documents reveal that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was involved in a scheme using fake IDs to fraudulently obtain and cast mail-in ballots in favour of Biden.
He says the documents have been turned over to Senator Chuck Grassley, following concerns that the FBI had suppressed or failed to fully vet key intelligence from 2020.
“The FBI has located documents which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP. I have immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over to the Chairman Grassley for further review,” read his X post dated June 17.
What’s in the report?
Conservative outlet Just The News quoted Patel saying that the documents reportedly describe a CCP-linked operation that brought thousands of fake Chinese driver’s licenses into the US. These IDs were allegedly used to illegally obtain mail-in ballots, which were then used to vote for Joe Biden.
The report claims this was part of a broader interference campaign by China to influence the election outcome.
Patel is a long-time Trump loyalist who played key roles in the administration’s intelligence and defence apparatus. He has aligned himself with the narrative that the 2020 election was stolen – a claim that has been widely debunked in courts and by election officials.
Senator Chuck Grassley too has previously raised concerns that the FBI may have withheld or ignored politically sensitive intelligence. Now that the documents have been handed to him, the Senate Judiciary Committee could call for an investigation or hearings, and press the FBI for further transparency.
According to the outlet, the purported intelligence report came in August 2020, during Trump’s first term, when his appointee Chris Wray was FBI Director. A new confidential source claimed China planned to use fake US driver’s licenses to let Chinese residents vote in the 2020 election. Wray, however, testified there was no foreign interference.
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