FBI delivers intel to Congress on alleged Chinese plot to interfere in 2020 election
FBI Director Kash Patel forked over a trove of documents to Congress detailing an alleged Chinese campaign to meddle in the 2020 election that involved thousands of bogus US driver's licenses.
Precise details about the alleged effort are murky, but a confidential source alleged the Chinese planned to use those licenses for thousands of mail-in votes to benefit former President Joe Biden, a spokesperson for the FBI honcho explained to The Post.
Authorities had caught wind of the alleged plot around August 2020, but intelligence reports on it were recalled for reasons that aren't fully clear, the spokesperson added.
US Customs and Border Protection seized almost 20,000 fake licenses around that time.
Biden won the swing states of Arizona and Georgia by more than 10,000 and 12,000 votes, respectively, and Trump's margin of defeat in Wisconsin was more than 20,000 votes.
Patel declassified the intelligence report and sent it over to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) office for additional vetting.
'The FBI has located documents which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP,' Patel revealed on X.
'I have immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over to [sic] the Chairman Grassley for further review.'
3 FBI Director Kash Patel sent the intelligence to Sen. Chuck Grassley.
AP
3 Chinese-backed actors had allegedly created thousands of fake US driver's licenses.
AP
Grassley had raised concerns that the intelligence wasn't fully probed — despite evidence of the bogus US driver's licenses — and pushed for the bureau to revisit the matter.
'Thanks to the oversight work and partnership of Chairman Grassley, the FBI continues to provide unprecedented transparency at the people's Bureau,' Patel told Just the News, which first reported on this story. 'To that end, we have located documents Chairman Grassley requested.'
'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.'
A somewhat new confidential source had tipped off authorities to the plot. The extent to which the FBI took any steps to counter the scheme at the time is not fully clear.
3 Sen. Chuck Grassley had pushed the FBI to turn over the intelligence.
Getty Images
The Post contacted Grassley's office for comment and additional information.
Concerns about the Chinese mass producing fake licenses have swirled for some time.
Back in 2012, for example, several senators, including Grassley and retiring Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) penned a letter to the Chinese ambassador urging Beijing to crack down on production of fake US driver's liceneses and other documents.
At the time, the senators were concerned about reports that some 1,700 fake driver's licenses had been confiscated at O'Hare Airport in Chicago.
Since ascending to the top of the FBI, Patel has vowed to bring more transparency to the bureau and provide lawmakers with material that they have long struggled to obtain from the agency.
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