FBI Renews Scrutiny Over Handling of 2020 Election Interference Allegation Against China

Director Patel says the documents detail ‘alarming allegations’ that ‘while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public.’

FBI Director Kash Patel (R) and National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh testify before a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing in Washington on March 26, 2025. Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON—The FBI has stepped up scrutiny over how it handled previously undisclosed documents containing source claims over alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 elections.

The documents, which the agency’s director declassified on June 16 and shared with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), were dated months before the 2020 presidential election. They show the FBI alerting federal agencies to fraudulent U.S. driver’s licenses from China being shipped to the United States—then recalling the advisory and asking for the file’s destruction, according to files The Epoch Times has obtained.