The House Oversight Committee plans to vote Thursday to carry FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt over what they are saying is the bureau’s refusal at hand over data tied to the GOP-led panel’s investigation into President Biden and his household.

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The House Oversight Committee plans to vote Thursday to carry FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt over what they are saying is the bureau’s refusal at hand over data tied to the GOP-led panel’s investigation into President Biden and his household.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., mentioned he is seen sufficient to maneuver ahead with plans for a contempt listening to in opposition to FBI Director Christopher Wray over his dealing with of a GOP-led investigation into President Biden and his family, setting the matter for a Thursday meeting.

The unprecedented transfer to carry an FBI director in contempt comes after Comer and different GOP members claimed the company was withholding data tied to a investigation.

Earlier Monday, Comer and the Oversight panel’s prime rating Democrat, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, had been briefed behind closed doorways by the FBI in regards to the file in query.

“At the briefing, the FBI again refused to hand over the unclassified record to the custody of the House Oversight Committee, and we will now initiate contempt of Congress hearings this Thursday,” Comer, R-Ky., instructed reporters.

Comer and different Republicans declare the doc is tied to their investigation alleging Biden, as vp beneath President Obama, engaged in a bribery scheme with a international nationwide. The Biden White House slammed the claims.

“This is yet another fact-free stunt staged by Chairman Comer not to conduct legitimate oversight, but to spread thin innuendo to try to damage the president politically and get himself media attention,” a White House spokesman, Ian Sams, mentioned in a press release.

The Oversight assembly is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.

If the panel votes to carry Wray in contempt, the measure would transfer to the total House, the place Republicans have a four-seat majority, for a vote.

Raskin, the highest Democrat on the panel, referred to as the plans for a contempt quotation in opposition to Wray “absolutely ridiculous.” He famous that he, like Comer, noticed the FBI doc in query, however Comer modified his request to ask for a bodily copy.

“The committee has gotten exactly what the committee has asked for, which is this document,” Raskin instructed reporters. “We were there today reading the document, looking at the document and then the chairman said, ‘Oh, well, we want the physical document itself.’ So they keep … relocating the goal posts in order to find some reason to hold the FBI director in contempt of Congress for the first time in American history.”

Raskin, who served on the Select Jan. 6 panel, mentioned that his former committee set a bipartisan instance of when to pursue contempt expenses, because it did within the instances of Steve Bannon and others. (Although most Republicans boycotted the panel, GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois took half in it. Neither remains to be within the House.) Raskin mentioned he and different Democrats would work to persuade different Republicans to reject the transfer, which he argued was tied to former President Trump.

“That is a distraction and a side show from what is going on with (former President) Donald Trump,” who’s dealing with potential expenses tied to a number of prison instances, Raskin mentioned. “I think it’s Donald Trump who wants to make sure that the Republican party is doing everything they can to undermine the FBI, impugn the FBI and just dirty up the work of law enforcement.”

The FBI on Monday pushed again in opposition to Comer’s claims.

“The FBI has continually demonstrated its commitment to accommodate the committee’s request, including by producing the document in a reading room at the U.S. Capitol,” the bereau mentioned in a press release. “This commonsense safeguard is often employed in response to congressional requests and in court proceedings to protect important concerns, such as the physical safety of sources and the integrity of investigations. The escalation to a contempt vote under these circumstances is unwarranted.”

NPR’s Carrie Johnson contributed to this report