The following is a press release from Sen. Grassley and Sen. Johnson.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are pressing FBI Director Kash Patel for answers regarding the bureau’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop.

“On April 1, 2025, Catherine Herridge and Michael Shellenberger published a report and released FBI ‘chat messages’ from October 2020, which revealed that FBI officials were ‘actively shutting down discussion of the [Hunter Biden] laptop’s credibility before the 2020 presidential election,’” the chairmen wrote.

“While your predecessor opted to stonewall and ignore our multiple requests for information on the matter, we expect that under your leadership the FBI will be transparent with Congress. The American people deserve to see every document, along with a detailed explanation of how the FBI handled the laptop since the day they first possessed it on December 9, 2019,” the chairmen continued.

Grassley and Johnson requested the following information:

1. All “chat messages” referenced in Catherine Herridge and Michael Shellenberger’s report, including but not limited to all messages provided to any office or committee of the US House of Representatives referring or relating to the Hunter Biden laptop.
2. All text messages, instant messages, team chats and all other “chat messages” referring or relating to the Hunter Biden laptop, sent between and among the following individuals:
   • Elvis Chan
   • Laura Dehmlow
   • Bradley Benavides
   • James Dennehy
   • Any other FBI employee or detailee involved in the receipt, review or assessment of the Hunter Biden laptop
3. All FBI records from December 1, 2019, to the present related to Hunter Biden and his electronic devices.

Read the press release here.

Read the letter to the FBI here or below.

The Honorable Kash Patel
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Dear Director Patel:

Since 2020, we have conducted oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) corrupt handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop. While your predecessor opted to stonewall and ignore our multiple requests for information on the matter, we expect that under your leadership the FBI will be transparent with Congress. The American people deserve to see every document, along with a detailed explanation of how the FBI handled the laptop since the day they first possessed it on December 9, 2019.¹

In September 2020, we released a report titled, “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns,” and we released a supplemental report on November 18, 2020.² On October 15, 2020, the New York Post reported on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop.³ On October 17, 2020, Sen. Johnson wrote to then-FBI Director Christopher Wray about a whistleblower who contacted his office and reported that he provided the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop to the FBI in response to a December 9, 2019 grand jury subpoena.⁴ Sen. Johnson requested information about the FBI’s handling of the laptop and whether the whistleblower’s claims were valid.⁵ In response, the FBI informed Sen. Johnson “the FBI cannot provide any additional information in response to the enumerated questions in your [Oct. 17, 2020] letter.”⁶

Due to the FBI’s lack of transparency relating to the handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop, on October 21, 2020, Sen. Johnson requested Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz open an investigation.⁷ On February 17, 2021, the Inspector General informed Sen. Johnson that the office would not be taking any investigatory actions on the matter.

Inspector General Horowitz wrote:

Subsequently, in December 2020, Hunter Biden publicly stated that the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) in Delaware advised his legal counsel that the USAO was investigating his tax affairs. Earlier this month, the Department announced that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware was one of the two U.S. Attorneys asked to remain in his role in the new administration. In light of these circumstances, and consistent with the OIG’s practice, we will not take actions that could interfere with an ongoing investigation.⁸

On April 1, 2025, Catherine Herridge and Michael Shellenberger published a report and released FBI “chat messages” from October 2020, which revealed that FBI officials were “actively shutting down discussion of the [Hunter Biden] laptop’s credibility before the 2020 presidential election.”⁹ These October 2020 internal messages appear to corroborate whistleblower information we previously released, highlighting the FBI’s widespread efforts to downplay and undermine investigatory steps relating to Hunter Biden.

In late July 2022, Sen. Grassley wrote to the DOJ and FBI about whistleblower disclosures that, in August 2020, “there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.”¹⁰ In August 2020, we were provided an unnecessary briefing by the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force that was designed to undermine our investigation into the Biden family.¹¹ In August 2022, Sen. Johnson learned from whistleblowers that after the FBI obtained the Hunter Biden laptop from the Wilmington, DE computer shop, local FBI leadership told employees, “you will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop[.]”¹² These whistleblower allegations, as well as the recently released chat messages, illustrate the FBI’s past abuse of power.

In continuation of our previous oversight work, we request the following:

1. All “chat messages” referenced in Catherine Herridge and Michael Shellenberger’s report, including but not limited to all messages provided to any office or committee of the U.S. House of Representatives referring or relating to the Hunter Biden laptop.¹³
2. All text messages, instant messages, team chats, and all other “chat messages” referring or relating to the Hunter Biden laptop, sent between and among the following individuals:
   • Elvis Chan
   • Laura Dehmlow
   • Bradley Benavides
   • James Dennehy
   • Any other FBI employee or detailee involved in the receipt, review, or assessment of the Hunter Biden laptop
3. All FBI records¹⁴ from December 1, 2019 to the present related to Hunter Biden and his electronic devices.

Please provide this information as soon as possible and contact our offices with any questions related to this request.

Sincerely,
Ron Johnson
Chairman, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Charles E. Grassley
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary

cc:
The Honorable Richard Blumenthal, Ranking Member, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
The Honorable Richard Durbin, Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary