Congresswoman says Biden admin shut down FBI briefing over Afghan man charged with Election Day terror plot
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., said the Biden administration has blocked the FBI from fulfilling her request for a briefing on the arrest of an Afghan man charged with plotting a terror attack on Election Day.
In a letter dated Friday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Bice said the FBI was fully supportive of her request until the Justice Department stepped in.
"When my office requested additional information and a briefing from the Department of Justice on this matter, my request was denied by the administration," she wrote. "What does the Biden-Harris Department of Justice have to hide here?
AFGHAN MAN IN OKLAHOMA PLOTTED ELECTION DAY TERROR ATTACK IN US ON BEHALF OF ISIS, JUSTICE DEPT SAYS
"As a life-long resident of Oklahoma City, our community still vividly recalls the bitter memory of April 19, 1995," Bice added, referring to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City that killed 168 people, including 19 children.
She is asking for a briefing as "expeditiously" as possible. Fox News Digital has reached out to Bice's office and the White House.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, an Oklahoma resident, was arrested this week for an alleged terror plot on behalf of the Islamic State. He entered the United States a month after U.S. troops pulled out of Afghanistan on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) humanitarian parole, rather than on a special immigrant visa, as the Justice Department initially said.
The mechanism through which Tawhedi entered the country is especially sensitive because the DHS inspector general raised concerns about Operation Allies Welcome, the program through which the agency paroled Afghan refugees into the country, circumventing the lengthier and more strenuous vetting process of the State Department-run special immigrant visa, or SIV, program.
DHS OIG FAULTS AFGHAN VETTING, WARNS NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS MAY HAVE ENTERED US
In 2022, the DHS inspector general's office released a report that said it found officials "did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees."
As a result, "DHS may have admitted or paroled individuals into the U.S. who pose a risk to national security and the safety of local communities," the report said. Tawhedi worked for the CIA as a security guard in Afghanistan.
Investigators said they believe Tawhedi became radicalized after arriving in the U.S.
While he entered the U.S. on humanitarian parole, he later applied for an SIV and was approved, a senior Biden administration official told Fox News.
The administration maintains Tawhedi was subjected to multiple rounds of vetting and that no red flags were raised.
"The unsealed criminal complaint against Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi raises continued concerns about the aftermath of the Administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan and inadequate vetting of evacuees," Bice wrote.