EXCLUSIVE – Former Attorney General William Barr said it’s “even more critical” that the Department of Justice release a document alleging a criminal bribery scheme involving President Biden after a plea deal between prosecutors and the president’s son, Hunter.
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax. The younger Biden also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Barr said the DOJ should cooperate with House Republicans demanding that the FBI release the FD-1023 form – providing necessary steps are taken to protect the life and safety of the confidential human source in the document.
In an exclusive interview Monday, Barr told Fox News Digital that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s unprecedented indictment of former President Donald Trump for his mishandling of classified documents “understandably sparked ire over a double standard.”
Barr said this assurance is “especially needed now because of recent reports that an FBI whistleblower is suggesting some shenanigans possibly directed at undermining the Delaware investigation,” he said.
“In light of the slow pace of that investigation, these reports are, frankly, very concerning. Chairman Comer and key senators are trying to get to the bottom of this,” he said.
U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss has been leading an investigation into potentially criminal business dealings by the president’s son, Hunter Biden, for the better part of four-years.
The document, dated June 30, 2020, is the FBI’s interview with a “highly credible” confidential human source who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top Burisma executive over the course of several years, starting in 2015.
Earlier this month the FBI allowed the House Oversight Committee to review the document with redactions after Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for initially defying a subpoena for the document.
House Republicans are still demanding the FBI release the document. Last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Congress “still lacks a full and complete picture with respect to what that document really says.”
Barr said there was “no sign” of the FD-1023 to be disinformation and was therefore routed to Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Weiss in Delaware – who was and is still working a probe focusing on Hunter Biden.
“It’s murky,” Barr told Fox News Digital, “but it seems the whistleblower is suggesting someone at FBI headquarters tried to shunt aside the same or similar allegations covered in the 1023.”
“I know DOJ has a strong policy against sharing these raw reports, and for good reason. Any FBI director would have had Wray’s reticence about turning it over, and I think he did his best to accommodate Chairman Comer,” Barr said.
“They got it right before anybody else – including the DOJ. Letting them take a look at this could be a good thing, as long as we protect the safety of our sources,” he said.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.