Prepared Floor Remarks by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
On Democrats Spreading Disinformation to Protect President Biden
Thursday, March 18, 2021

 
On March 16, 2021, the Intelligence Community issued its Intelligence Community Assessment on Foreign Threats to the 2020 U.S. Federal Elections.
 
Based on that report, some in the liberal media have falsely claimed that my and Senator Johnson’s Hunter Biden related oversight activities last Congress were based on Russian disinformation.
 
Even Peter Strzok felt the need to chime in on Twitter to say we received Russian disinformation.
 
Such claims are false and misleading.
 
To be precise, Senator Johnson and I didn’t receive, solicit or rely upon any information from Andriy Derkach and we’ve publicly said so many times.
 
It seems like Strzok pays just about as careful attention to these facts as he did the Crossfire Hurricane FISA applications.
 
Of course, Twitter lets disinformation about the Steele Dossier run wild on their platform yet shuts down still-unrefuted reporting on Hunter Biden before the 2020 presidential election.
 
Talk about a double standard.
 
Now, regarding Russian disinformation, it wasn’t us that dealt in it.
 
It was the Democrats. Here’s one quick example. If you want more, read Section 10 of our September 23, 2020, report.
 
On July 13, 2020, then-Minority Leader Schumer, Senator Warner, Speaker Pelosi and Representative Schiff sent a letter, with a classified attachment, to the FBI to express a purported belief that Congress was the subject of a foreign disinformation campaign.
 
The classified attachment included unclassified elements that attempted – and failed – to tie our work to Derkach.
 
Those unclassified elements were then leaked to the press to support a false campaign accusing us of using Russian disinformation.
 
Then, during the course of our investigation, we ran a transcribed interview of George Kent.
 
Before that interview, the Democrats acquired Derkach’s materials.
 
During that interview, they asked the witness about it. He stated, “What you’re asking me to interpret is a master chart of disinformation and malign influence.”
 
At that interview, the Democrats introduced known disinformation into the investigative record as an exhibit.
 
More precisely, the Democrats relied upon and disseminated known disinformation from a foreign source whom the Intelligence Community warned was actively seeking to influence U.S. politics.
 
Yet they accused me and Senator Johnson of doing that very thing.
 
Let that sink in.

It’s clear that the Democrats hoped that their self-created disinformation campaign would drown-out our report and its findings to protect candidate Biden from the facts.
 
Now that President Biden is in office, the facts aren’t going anywhere.
 
As President Biden gears up for his first press conference, he ought to answer for the fact that his family was – and possibly still is – financially connected to Chinese nationals with links to the communist party and the People’s Liberation Army.
 
Indeed, Hunter Biden reportedly admitted that he was well aware that some of his business associates were connected to the communist Chinese government’s intelligence services.
 
Where is the media in asking serious questions about that? 
 
It’s also been reported that emails show Joe Biden and his brother were “office mates” with the very same Chinese nationals with links to the communist regime and it’s military.
 
Where is the media in asking serious questions about that?
 
Tony Bobulinski publicly stated that Joe Biden was aware of and possibly involved in Hunter Biden’s business deals.
 
Where is the media in asking serious questions about that?
 
The Biden family transactions and associations in our September 2020 report raise criminal, counterintelligence and extortion concerns.
 
Yet, the liberal media has ignored all of it and has failed to ask any legitimate questions. Don’t you think “We the People” have a right to know the answers?  The media certainly seemed to think so during the last administration.
 
If this story was about Trump, I guarantee you it would be all over the news.
 
It’s perfectly legitimate and reasonable for Congress and the news media to question the Biden administration about these global financial transactions and associations.
 
It’s perfectly legitimate to ask how they could impact the Biden administration’s foreign policy.
 
That’s especially true as it relates to China given the extensive links between the Biden family and that country.
 

Let’s see if anyone dares to ask serious questions at the president’s first news conference.