Last week, a little-noticed but potentially explosive report came to light.
On June 16, 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel declassified an intelligence document originally filed in August 2020.
It alleged that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mass-produced fake U.S. driver’s licenses with the goal of facilitating mail-in ballot fraud in favor of Joe Biden during the 2020 election.
BREAKING: The FBI has documents which reveal the CCP produced fake U.S. driver’s licenses to skew the 2020 election with fake mail-in ballots for Joe Biden.
FBI Director Kash Patel handed over the documents to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.
Holy crap.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 17, 2025
The report was handed over to Sen. Chuck Grassley.
It included at least one confidential source and was partly backed by hard numbers: U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized nearly 20,000 fake licenses, mostly from China, around the same time.
Yet, despite what looks like the start of a serious investigation, the report was recalled within weeks.
The FBI didn’t pursue the case. The source was never re-interviewed. The matter was dropped.
Evidence Was There. So Why Wasn’t It Followed?
Let’s pause and look at the facts.
CBP did intercept 19,888 fake IDs at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 2020.
That’s not speculation; it’s documented.
The IDs looked authentic, many with barcodes that scanned properly.
When news of these seizures broke, officials said the documents were mostly intended for fraud, identity theft, or underage drinking – not voting.
Fact-checkers, citing CBP statements, dismissed the idea of a link to election fraud.
That was the public line. Internally, the FBI had a report that said otherwise.
So why didn’t they dig deeper?
Maybe the case lacked concrete proof. Maybe it was an election year and nerves were high.
But here’s the concern: since when is it acceptable for the federal government to abandon a potential foreign interference plot without exhausting every lead?
Integrity Requires More Than Optics
In 2020, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress there were “no known plots” by foreign actors to interfere in the election.
That statement now feels incomplete at best.
No known plots? There was an active report in the system. Just one the bureau decided not to investigate fully.
It’s hard not to wonder whether the decision to shelve it was political. The stakes were enormous, the pressure intense, and transparency was limited.
To be fair, the 2020 fact-checks might have been technically correct. Maybe those IDs weren’t registered to vote. Maybe they didn’t end up in ballot drop boxes.
But that misses the bigger question: if hostile foreign governments are producing fake American documents, why isn’t that enough to sound alarms?
You don’t need to prove the worst-case scenario to justify a full investigation. You just need to take the possibility seriously.
A Pattern That Shouldn’t Be Ignored
There’s a growing sense among many conservatives that election integrity issues are too often waved away as fringe concerns.
Raise questions, and you’re labeled conspiratorial. Ask for oversight, and you’re told the system works just fine.
A major federal agency had early warning signs. Those warnings were backed by seizures at the border.
And the system, for reasons we still don’t fully understand, let it go.
Where We Go From Here
Now that the report has been made public, there’s a chance to do things differently.
Congress should investigate why this case was dropped. The source should be re-interviewed. CBP’s data should be reviewed again, in light of what we now know.
Going forward, there should be clear rules for how election-related intelligence is handled – especially when it involves foreign adversaries.
No one’s claiming the 2020 election was ultimately decided by fake IDs. That’s not the point.
The point is that if there’s credible evidence of a foreign plot, the FBI has a responsibility to follow through.
That didn’t happen in 2020. It should have.
Let’s make sure it does next time.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
