Allegations are swirling that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have meddled in the 2020 presidential election with a scheme straight out of a spy novel.
Fox News reported that the Senate Judiciary Committee, under Chairman Chuck Grassley, alongside the FBI, is digging into claims that the CCP manufactured and shipped fake U.S. driver's licenses to sway votes toward Joe Biden through fraudulent mail-in ballots.
Let’s rewind to early 2020, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at Chicago O’Hare International Airport intercepted nearly 20,000 counterfeit driver’s licenses in over 1,500 shipments, mostly from China and Hong Kong.
It’s unclear if these seizures tie directly to the allegations, but the timing raises eyebrows. After all, who needs that many fake IDs unless something fishy is afoot?
Fast forward to late August 2020, when whispers of a CCP plot surfaced, alleging that fraudulent licenses were crafted using real U.S. citizen data—think names, IDs, and addresses—possibly scraped from millions of TikTok accounts.
The goal? To enable tens of thousands of ineligible Chinese students and immigrants sympathetic to the CCP to cast mail-in votes for Biden.
These licenses, per the claims, were designed to be nearly undetectable, with legitimate-looking details meant to fool election systems. If true, this would be a masterclass in deception, but let’s not jump the gun—there’s no proof yet that any ballots were submitted. Still, the audacity of such a plan makes one wonder how secure our systems really are.
The FBI got wind of this through a declassified document, released at Grassley’s request by Director Kash Patel in late May 2020.
This report, labeled as raw intelligence and not fully vetted, came from a collaborative source with indirect access, whose claims haven’t been corroborated. It’s a classic case of “trust, but verify”—or maybe just “verify, period.”
Here’s where it gets murky: the document was recalled for a “substantive” update on September 25, 2020, just a day after then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress there was no evidence of coordinated voter fraud. Recipients were ordered to destroy all copies of the original report and purge it from systems. Sounds like someone wanted this buried faster than a backyard secret.
Grassley isn’t letting this slide, demanding to know who ordered the recall, why it happened, and whether destroying the report aligns with federal record-keeping rules.
“Explain why the FBI under your predecessor required the original [report] to be destroyed,” Grassley wrote to Patel, pressing for answers. It’s a fair question—shouldn’t the public know if critical intel was swept under the rug?
The senator is also pushing for more documents and details on follow-up interviews with the source, as well as any investigative steps the FBI has taken or plans to take. Transparency isn’t just a buzzword here; it’s a necessity when national security and election integrity are on the line.
Back to the document’s claims: it suggests China used TikTok user data to forge these IDs, though FBI notations question how address info could be obtained since it’s not a required field on the app. That’s a gaping hole in the story, and it’s why skepticism is warranted. Still, the idea of foreign powers exploiting social media data isn’t exactly science fiction.
The broader implication—that a foreign government could orchestrate tens of thousands of fake votes—is chilling, even if unproven. It’s a reminder that in the digital age, our info might be a weapon in someone else’s hands. We’ve got to ask: are Big Tech platforms doing enough to safeguard our data?
FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t mince words, stating, “These include allegations of plans from the CCP to manufacture fake driver’s licenses and ship them into the United States to facilitate fraudulent mail-in ballots.” But he also noted the claims were “abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public.” Why the silence, and who benefits from keeping this under wraps?
Grassley’s team told Fox News Digital, “The document alleges serious national security concerns that need to be fully investigated by the FBI.” That’s not hyperbole—any hint of foreign interference in our elections is a five-alarm fire. Yet, without hard evidence, we’re left with more questions than answers.
The senator’s pursuit of the truth is a breath of fresh air in an era where too many seem content to let sleeping dogs lie, especially when it comes to challenging narratives that prop up the progressive agenda.
His call for the FBI to “inform the American people of its findings” is a rallying cry for accountability. We deserve to know if our democratic process was targeted, even if the attempt failed.