Two powerful congressional Republicans are seeking information from the FBI that purports to prove President Biden was involved in a pay-for-play scheme while serving as vice president. 

In a subpoena released Wednesday, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, and the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Grassley, asked the FBI to release an unclassified version of a whistleblower report that “allegedly details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.”

“The information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national,” Mr. Comer wrote in a statement. “The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself.”

Mr. Comer and his committee colleagues are leading the congressional inquiry into claims of bribery, and Mr. Grassley is involved because the original whistleblower complaints were sent to him directly. The two men are now asking for more extensive reports that the FBI may have, including all whistleblower complaints “that contain the word ‘Biden’ and all accompanying attachments and documents.”

Mr. Grassley has previously investigated the nature of Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, which allegedly involved the president’s younger brother, James. In October 2022, Mr. Grassley’s Senate office sought information related to the Biden family’s involvement with business entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party. “The Justice Department’s and FBI’s continued silence on these matters is deafening and further erodes their credibility,” Mr. Grassley wrote at the time. 

“Simply put, enough is enough — the Justice Department and FBI must come clean to Congress and the American people with respect to the steps they have taken, or failed to take, relating to the Hunter Biden investigation,” he added.

Before that, Mr. Grassley had been conducting his own investigations into Hunter Biden while serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, though it was not an official committee investigation. Before the 2020 presidential election, Mr. Grassley’s office sent a number of financial records to the United States attorney for the district of Delaware, David Weiss, who is still looking into the younger Mr. Biden’s business and tax records. 

Mr. Comer has also been investigating the business practices of the first son. In March, the oversight committee disclosed that millions of dollars had been dispersed to the Biden family through Hunter Biden from an energy firm in Communist China. 

Mr. Comer said that “six additional members” of the Biden family “may have benefited” from these transactions, and thus pose a “national security threat.” He added that the family’s “enterprise is centered on Joe Biden’s political career and connections.” Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie, was paid tens of thousands of dollars by Hunter Biden even though she has no expertise in politics, consulting, or the energy industry. 

While congressional Republicans have long focused on Hunter Biden as the nexus of possible payment schemes to the family, the whistleblower report being sought by Messrs. Comer and Grassley could be the first instance of a whistleblower directly tying the sitting president to foreign entities.