Grassley and Ron Johnson Say the FBI Used a Fake Classification Marking — "Round River" — to Wall Off Biden Family Records From Congress, and Demand Blanche, Patel and Clayton Release Them
In a letter dated August 17, 2026, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson asked Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to release records tied to "Operation Round River," an FBI effort that whistleblowers have said sought to discredit derogatory information about Hunter Biden as disinformation ahead of the 2020 election. The senators' central allegation is procedural: documents obtained by Grassley's office carry classification banner markings that list "Round River" itself as a classification code. Grassley wrote that this made it appear the FBI under then-Director Christopher Wray was treating Round River as a Special Access Program when, by every account the committee has received, it was not one — the practical effect being to bury the material in a compartment neither Congress nor the public could reach. The senators asked for the underlying records to be declassified to the fullest extent permitted by law, including a December 2019 email. As of publication no responsive statement from the Justice Department, FBI or ODNI had been reported, and no Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee had responded on the record.
“To date, the available records cause serious concerns about how federal law enforcement and the Intelligence Community used its resources to downgrade allegations of criminality relating to the Biden family apparently without sufficient investigation. The records also cause concern about how federal records were stored and managed.”