In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, the FBI quietly shut down an internal investigation into a reported Chinese Communist Party (CCP) scheme to interfere with mail-in voting, according to newly released documents made public by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The alleged plot involved the mass production of fake U.S. driver’s licenses and mail-in ballots intended to support then-candidate Joe Biden. According to a 2020 intelligence report from the FBI's Albany, N.Y., field office, the information came from a confidential informant who said the CCP was manufacturing “tens of thousands” of licenses as part of a broader plan.
But the bureau never pursued a full investigation into the claims. Internal FBI emails reveal that the intelligence report was recalled — not due to lack of credibility, but because its contents would have conflicted with then-FBI Director Christopher Wray’s sworn testimony to Congress.
In September 2020, just weeks before the election, Wray told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee that the FBI had “not seen historically any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it is by mail or otherwise.” He also pledged that the FBI would investigate any substantial evidence of mail-in voter fraud.
However, after the Albany office submitted the intelligence report, FBI headquarters instructed the team to withdraw it. One analyst in the field office raised concerns about the suppression in an October 2020 email, saying the decision appeared politically motivated.
“Most concerning to me is stating the reporting would contradict with Director Wray’s testimony,” the analyst wrote. “That goes directly against our organization’s mission to remain apolitical and simply state what we know.”
The Albany office re-interviewed the confidential informant, who stood by the claims and added additional context. FBI officials on the ground reportedly considered the source “competent” and “authentic.” Despite this, no formal probe was ever launched.
Records show that Nikki Floris, then-deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, ordered the recall of the document. Floris was also involved in efforts to undermine Senate probes into the Biden family’s overseas business dealings, according to Grassley’s office.
“These records smack of political decision-making and prove the Wray-led FBI to be a deeply broken institution,” Grassley said in a statement. “Ahead of a high-stakes election happening amid an unprecedented global pandemic, the FBI turned its back on its national security mission.”
The FBI’s China division, part of the now-defunct Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), failed to pursue the claims seriously. In a letter to Grassley dated June 27, the bureau admitted that beyond a request for information from Customs and Border Protection, it found no record of any substantial follow-up on the CCP interference report.
The FITF itself was dismantled earlier this year by the Trump administration after revelations about its role in urging social media platforms to suppress stories — including the Hunter Biden laptop — that were deemed politically sensitive.
Kash Patel, who now oversees transparency efforts within the FBI, commented on the revelations in a recent social media post:
“In 2020, facts about CCP election interference were buried by FBI leadership for political convenience. Thanks to relentless oversight from @ChuckGrassley and the hard work of our FBI team, the truth is finally coming to light. We’re restoring trust—through transparency, not politics.”
Grassley has demanded further explanations from current FBI leadership about why the document was recalled, whether it was destroyed, and what — if anything — was done to investigate the claims at the time.
