Grassley Opens Senate Judiciary FBI Oversight Hearing, Releases Additional Records Demonstrating Political Weaponization and Misconduct at Biden FBI

Prepared Opening Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Tuesday, September 16, 2025

I'd like to welcome everyone to the Judiciary Committee's annual FBI oversight hearing.

We meet today in the aftermath of the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, a school shooting and the senseless murder of a Ukrainian refugee.

Charlie Kirk was a man of God, faith, family and country.

I pray for his wife Erika, his children and his whole family.

God bless you, Charlie Kirk.

I've asked Director Patel for an update today on this matter.

As we proceed with the hearing, Director Patel, I'd like to note you've agreed to one 10-minute round.

That's more time than your predecessor agreed to.

When Director Wray appeared before this committee, he left early to go on a family vacation.

Since your confirmation, you've been acquainted with the bureaucracy that you must reform and hold accountable.

That's no simple task.

You've begun the important work of returning the FBI to its law enforcement mission.

According to the FBI, since January 20th of this year, the FBI has been involved in the arrest of more than 23,000 violent criminals.

This year, the FBI assisted in the arrest of more than 1,500 child predators and 300 human traffickers.

And this year, the FBI helped rescue more than 4,000 children from predators.

FBI teams nationwide are working alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This teamwork has resulted in the arrest and removal of historic numbers of violent criminal aliens, gang members and child sex offenders.

Those are overwhelmingly better records than at least your two past predecessors.

During the Wray era at the FBI, the bureau reallocated resources from child crimes to January 6 work.

Director Patel, you've also moved agents from Headquarters to Field Offices to better align with their law enforcement mission.

Under your leadership, the FBI has apprehended several "Most Wanted" fugitives and secured the extradition of senior leaders of Central American gangs like MS-13.

Now, it's well-understood that your predecessor left you an FBI infected with politics.

I'm going to provide examples of that today, including making public new whistleblower records.

At your nomination hearing, I made public records that whistleblowers provided me about Arctic Frost.

Arctic Frost was the FBI case opened and approved by anti-Trump FBI agent Thibault.

Arctic Frost became Jack Smith's elector case.

These new records show that Arctic Frost was much broader than just an electoral matter.

The case was expanded to Republican organizations.

Some examples of the groups the Wray FBI sought to place under political investigation included the Republican National Committee, Republican Attorneys General Association and Trump political groups.

In total, 92 Republican targets, including Republican groups and Republican-linked individuals, were placed under the investigative scope of Arctic Frost.

On that political list was one of Charlie Kirk's groups, Turning Point USA.

In other words, Arctic Frost wasn't just a case to politically investigate Trump.

It was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.

Today, Senator Johnson and I are making these records public for the country to see.

My investigative work has also exposed the political way in which Peter Navarro was investigated and prosecuted.

When FBI agent Thibault found out that Biden's DOJ would prosecute Navarro, he said, "Wow. Great."

Through whistleblowers, I've obtained the audio recording of Special Agent Giardina and Special Agent Sebastian Gardner's delivery of a subpoena to Navarro.

I'm making that audio public today.

In a court document filed by DOJ, Navarro's interaction with the FBI was unfairly described as "combative."

That interaction with Navarro was used as the justification to later aggressively arrest him.

Then, we get to the Clinton Annex and Durham Annex.

The Clinton Annex showed that the Comey FBI had evidence necessary to complete the Clinton investigation - the one about her mishandling emails and classified information - but the FBI never reviewed that evidence at that time.

The Durham Annex showed that the Clinton Campaign had a plan to falsely tie Trump to Russia.

Yet, the Comey FBI failed to investigate that information.

Instead, the Comey FBI used the discredited Clinton Campaign-funded Steele Dossier to advance Crossfire Hurricane against Trump.

Director Patel, thanks in large part to you, both annexes were finally declassified.

Last Congress I made public an FBI document - called a "1023" form - that alleged a bribery scheme with the Biden family.

To date, the FBI has never answered Congress whether they investigated the text messages, audio files and financial records referenced in that 1023.

Whistleblowers have provided my office with two additional FBI 1023 documents. These documents memorialize statements from FBI sources.

These two new 1023 documents are from separate FBI confidential human sources during different years.

So, in total, we now have three different FBI confidential human sources providing information about the Biden family and potential criminal conduct.

Today, Senator Johnson and I are releasing these records.

Let me say this for the partisan media: We aren't saying the allegations are true. We want to know what the FBI did to fully investigate their veracity or lack thereof, and what they concluded.

Let's put this matter to rest, one way or the other.

Starting with my chairmanship, I've given one example after another of disgraceful partisan weaponization by federal law enforcement.

Since the Trump administration took power, many FBI agents have been removed.

The removals included agents and prosecutors who became partisan weapons that lost their way, and I've made records public to prove it. And, many of my whistleblowers were aggressively retaliated against by some FBI agents who were fired.

One FBI whistleblower publicly said of these terminations: "Ensuring that they no longer work at the FBI isn't retribution, its responsible leadership."

Which brings me to my final and favorite topic - whistleblowers.

In August, ten of my FBI whistleblowers secured compensation agreements because of you.

It included a mix of reinstatement to the FBI, reinstatement of security clearances and monetary compensation.

At the beginning of this month, another of my FBI whistleblowers got their job back.

All told across government agencies, almost 20 whistleblowers have received fixes to their retaliation.

Today, you'll get a lot of grief from some members of this committee.

But, in the short amount of time you've been Director, you've corrected whistleblower retaliation and increased transparency more than any other FBI Director I've seen, and I've been around here more than anyone else on this committee.

-30-

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Post