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The FBI uncovered documents alleging China was linked to the production of fraudulent driver’s licenses that were to be used for fake mail-in ballots supporting presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden in the 2020 election, Director Kash Patel said.
In a late Monday post on X, Mr. Patel said recently uncovered FBI documents “detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP,” the acronym for the Chinese Communist Party.
“I have immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over” to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley for further review, he said.
Mr. Patel posted a link to a news report that said an FBI intelligence report had raised concerns that Beijing mass-produced fake American driver’s licenses to skew the 2020 election with phony mail-in ballots backing Mr. Biden. Mr. Biden won the election that November.
President Trump has long claimed the election was “rigged” against him.
Mr. Patel praised Mr. Grassley’s oversight work and said the FBI would continue providing “unprecedented transparency.”
He said Mr. Grassley had requested the documents.
David Bader, a spokesman for Mr. Grassley, said the request was based on allegations of a legally protected whistleblower.
“The document alleges serious national security concerns that need to be fully investigated by the FBI,” Mr. Bader said. “Grassley is requesting additional documentation from the FBI to verify the production, and is urging the FBI to do its due diligence to investigate why the document was recalled, who recalled it and inform the American people of its findings.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Grassley sent a letter to Mr. Patel asking for the FBI to produce a September 25, 2020, intelligence report from the Albany, New York, field office and additional information about the report.
Quoting the report, Mr. Grassley said the intelligence document was “recalled in order to re-interview the source. Recipients should destroy all copies of the original report and remove the original report from all computer holdings.”
“Given this, please provide all records relating to that re-interview and recall, including but not limited to all communications between and among agents and intelligence analysts,” he stated.
Mr. Grassley also asked Mr. Patel why his immediate predecessor, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, ordered the report destroyed.
An FBI spokesman had no comment beyond Mr. Patel’s online comments.
An FBI spokesman told the New York Post that the Chinese planned to use the driver’s licenses to obtain thousands of mail-in ballots that would benefit the former vice president in the election.
The FBI learned of the Chinese effort in August 2020, but intelligence reports were recalled for unspecified reasons, the spokesman said.
In November 2020, Mr. Biden won the closely contested race by taking the swing states of Arizona and Georgia by more than 10,000 and 12,000 votes, respectively. He defeated Mr. Trump in Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes.
Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, raised concerns in the past about the use of fake driver’s licenses in the 2020 election and reportedly pressed the FBI to investigate further.
The latest FBI intelligence report was first reported by Just the News. Mr. Patel posted a link to the story on X.
“Specifically, these include allegations of plans from the CCP to manufacture fake driver’s licenses and ship them into the United States for the purpose of facilitating fraudulent mail-in ballots — allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public,” Mr. Patel was quoted as telling the outlet.
The plot involved creating voter identities for Chinese residents in the United States that could be used to vote by fake mail-in ballots in support of Mr. Biden.
The FBI report was recalled several weeks after it reached FBI headquarters based on concerns about the source of the information, Just the News said.
However, other information about the effort was later gathered by Customs and Border Protection, which was viewed as possible corroboration.
The intelligence was gathered while Mr. Wray was the FBI director. Mr. Wray resigned in December because of concerns about being fired by the incoming president.
As FBI director, Mr. Wray acknowledged attempted foreign interference in the 2020 election but said the effort did not “put at jeopardy the integrity of the vote count itself in any material way.”
The new intelligence could contradict that claim.
It is not clear how fake driver’s licenses could be used for mail-in ballots. Security measures for absentee voting include comparing signatures on ballots with signatures on file used in voter registration.
Customs and Border Protection said at the time that officers made 1,513 seizures containing fraudulent documents, including 19,888 counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses, at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in the first six months of 2020.
CPB said most of the shipments arrived from Hong Kong and China.
“These counterfeit driver’s licenses can lead to disastrous consequences,” Ralph Piccirilli, CBP’s Chicago port director, said in a statement at the time. “Criminal organizations use these counterfeit IDs to avoid attracting attention to their illegal activities.”
Most of the fake licenses were for college-age students and included some with the same photo but different names.
The barcode on fake Michigan licenses that were seized worked, indicating a high degree of sophistication, the CPB said.
In the 2024 election, China was linked to an effort to obtain data from both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns.
U.S. intelligence agencies disclosed in October that the Chinese government broke into part of the American telecommunications system and obtained unauthorized access to officials in the Trump campaign and the campaign of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency disclosed the effort.
The Chinese were seeking to access phones used by Mr. Trump and J.D. Vance, the vice presidential candidate at the time.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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