Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced on Wednesday that the select committee he heads will investigate the US intelligence community over allegations of obstruction involving a 2020 Senate investigation.
Jordan, who chairs the House weaponization select committee, said in a letter to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines that the panel is "investigating allegations that the U.S. Intelligence Community obstructed a congressional inquiry in 2020 by falsely alleging that the work of two U.S. Senators was advancing Russian 'disinformation.'"
The 2020 inquiry was opened by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and the allegations concern a briefing held on Aug. 6 of that year by the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterintelligence at the time, Nikki Floris, and then-Section Chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force Bradley Benavides. Grassley and Johnson have claimed that the briefing interfered in their investigation into the Biden family's business practices.
"Although the FBI claims that the briefing focused on Russia, the information that Floris and Benavides conveyed to the Senators 'consisted primarily of information that [Grassley and Johnson] already knew and information unconnected to [their] Biden investigation,'" the letter read.
"The briefing, the existence of which was later leaked, hampered the Senators' investigation into Hunter Biden's financial connections to foreign governments and foreign nationals," it continued.