By Newly declassified records obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) show the FBI shut down an election interference investigation in 2020 after Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress that no coordinated voter fraud effort had been uncovered—despite internal findings that pointed to a potential Chinese plot involving counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses.
The probe, initiated by the FBI’s Albany Field Office, centered on allegations that the Chinese Communist Party was attempting to sway the presidential election in favor of Joe Biden, writes the New York Post. According to a June 27 letter from Assistant FBI Director Marshall Yates to Grassley, the Albany team had developed an Intelligence Information Report (IIR) based on a credible source claiming the CCP had shipped fake driver’s licenses to individuals inside the U.S.
The assistant director further revealed that internal emails within the Albany field office showed staff “had concerns that suppressing the IIR would be ‘dangerous if we cite potential political implications as reasons for not putting out our information,’ emphasizing that it was not the role of analysts to align intelligence with public testimony.”
Staffers also expressed concern with FBI headquarters under Wray “assuming the role of sole gatekeeper” for the intelligence community, since suppressing the report would prevent intelligence agencies from corroborating or discrediting the source’s information.
The Albany field office’s report also resulted in a new policy being implemented ahead of the 2020 election, which stated that “all raw reporting concerning the election will now require HQ coordination, which was not required,” Yates said.
Grassley argued that the documents “smack of political decision-making and prove the Wray-led FBI to be a deeply broken institution.”
“Ahead of a high-stakes election happening amid an unprecedented global pandemic, the FBI turned its back on its national security mission,” the senator said in a statement. “One way or the other, intelligence must be fully investigated to determine whether it’s true, or if it’s just smoke and mirrors.”
The source of the original report was described as a China-based individual unaffiliated with the CCP. Agents considered the individual credible, and some aspects of the claim had been partially corroborated. Customs and Border Protection records showed that nearly 20,000 fake U.S. driver’s licenses—many from China and Hong Kong—had been seized at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport earlier that year, according to Fox News.
Despite Wray’s assurances during his testimony that the bureau would “aggressively” pursue any credible leads of voter fraud or foreign interference, Yates’s letter indicated the intelligence was never followed up. Instead, he noted a broader policy shift in the wake of the controversy: “All raw reporting concerning the election will now require HQ coordination, which was not required before.”
Field agents warned such a change risked politicizing intelligence handling. Yates acknowledged this concern, writing that “it was not the role of analysts to align intelligence with public testimony.”
The revelation comes amid broader structural changes at the bureau. In February 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the shutdown of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FTIF), originally created by Wray in 2017 to monitor election-related threats. Bondi cited mismanagement and mission drift as reasons for the closure. Grassley welcomed the decision, calling it “a positive step, given what the task force had been twisted into.”
“Chris Wray’s FBI wasn’t looking out for the American people,” Grassley said. “It was looking to save its own image.”
The news comes just a week after it was revealed that President Barack Obama ordered his CIA Director John Brennan to investigate Donald Trump’s “connections” to Russia in 2016.
The New York Post reported that the assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump was deliberately corrupted by then-CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who were “excessively involved” in its drafting, and rushed its completion in a “chaotic,” “atypical” and “markedly unconventional” process that raised questions of a “potential political motive.”
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