[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 51 (Thursday, March 18, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1637-S1638]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Foreign Threat Assessment Report

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, on March 6 of this year, 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 activity last Congress 
was based on Russian disinformation. Even Peter Strzok felt the need to 
chime in on Twitter to say that we received Russian disinformation.
  I don't know how many times I have to say it, but such claims are 
false and misleading. To be precise, Senator Johnson and I didn't 
receive, solicit, or rely upon any information from Andrii Derkach, and 
we publicly said so many times.
  I don't know how many times last fall I was on this floor of the U.S. 
Senate trying to explain that to the people who were making those 
accusations. It seems like Strzok pays just about as careful attention 
to these facts as he did to the Crossfire 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 election. In other words, we have a double 
standard.
  Now, regarding Russian disinformation, it wasn't Senator Johnson and 
this Senator that dealt in it. It happens to be very clear that the 
other side, the Democrats, were dealing with it. Here's one quick 
example. If you want more, then I would refer you to 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 to that letter included unclassified 
elements that attempted, but failed, to tie our work to Derkach. Those 
unclassified elements were leaked to the press to support a false 
campaign accusing us two Senators 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 now--can you believe this?--they accuse 
this Senator and Senator Johnson of doing that very thing. Now let that 
sink in because there is a case of double standard around here.
  It is clear that the Democrats hope 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.
  I had an opportunity to serve 28 years in the Senate with Senator 
Biden. I liked him then; I still like him. But that doesn't mean that I 
like the double standard the press has toward President Biden and us 
Republicans.
  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 intelligence 
services. Now, double standard--where is the media in asking serious 
questions about that?
  It has 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 the its military. Now, talk about a double 
standard. Where is the media in asking serious questions about that? 
Yet they are reporting this very day about things that Johnson and 
Grassley did about disinformation, which I have told you so many times 
we never received.
  Now there is this interview on television with Tony Bobulinski, 
publicly stating that Joe Biden was aware of and possibly involved in 
Hunter Biden's business deals. Talk about a double standard. Where is 
the media asking serious questions about that?
  The Biden family transactions and associations in our September 20 
report raised criminal, counterintelligence, and extortion concerns. 
Yet the media--the liberal media--has ignored all of it and has failed 
to ask any legitimate questions. Don't you think that we the people 
have a right to know the answers?
  The media certainly seemed to think so in all the doings of the Trump 
administration. If the story I just laid out here were about Trump, I 
guarantee you that it would be all over the news.
  It is perfectly legitimate and reasonable for Congress and the news 
media to question the Biden administration

[[Page S1638]]

about these global financial transactions and associations. It is 
perfectly legitimate to ask how they could impact the Biden 
administration's foreign policy. That is 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 questions at the President's 
first news conference.