A Republican member of the House Oversight Committee ripped the FBI Tuesday after the bureau said it was afraid for the safety of an informant if they come forward with details of an alleged $5 million bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden.

“The American people deserve to know if their sitting President sold out his country,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told The Post Tuesday. “The FBI originally would not confirm the existence of the document; then it magically appeared.

“Then the government told us the whistleblower wasn’t credible and the contents of the document couldn’t be verified,” she went on. “Come to find out the Obama Administration thought the whistleblower was credible when they hired this individual.

“Now the FBI also has told us the whistleblower can’t come forward publicly because they fear for his safety.

“If the FBI can’t verify information, investigate potential crimes, or keep people safe, what exactly are they good for?” Mace asked.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) who also sits on the House Oversight Committee, first revealed Monday that the bureau was fearful for the informant’s safety, saying on Twitter that the FBI said the whistleblower could “be killed if unmasked, based on the info he has brought forward about the Biden family.”

The same day, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said he would move to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt for refusing to hand over a physical copy of the FD-1023 form to the panel.

The bureau permitted Comer and Oversight Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) to review the file in a secure room at the Capitol to review, but did not allow them to hold on to it.

The FBI said in a statement Friday that it “has continually demonstrated its commitment to working with the Committee to accommodate its request, from scheduling briefings and calls to now allowing the Chair and Ranking Member to review information in person.”

“The commonsense protections the FBI has requested to maintain the confidentiality of that sensitive information are routinely employed both in response to congressional requests and in court in criminal proceedings to protect the physical safety of sources and the integrity of investigations,” the bureau said.

In response to Comer’s vow to begin contempt proceedings against Wray, the FBI said that it has “continually demonstrated its commitment to accommodate the committee’s request, including by producing the document in a reading room at the U.S. Capitol. This commonsense safeguard is often employed in response to congressional requests and in court proceedings to protect important concerns, such as the physical safety of sources and the integrity of investigations. The escalation to a contempt vote under these circumstances is unwarranted.”

Comer said the file implicates the 80-year-old Biden in a scheme involving “shell companies” and is part of an ongoing federal investigation.

“The claims made in the document are consistent with what we found and disclosed to you all in Romania. It suggests a pattern of bribery where payments would be made through shell accounts and multiple banks,” said the chairman, referring to a committee report from last month that showed a corrupt Romanian businessman paid $1 million to members of the Biden family between November 2015 and May 2017.

In a Fox News interview on Monday, Comer described the informant as one of the FBI’s “most highly credible human sources,” who was paid a “substantial amount of money.”

He added that the FD-1023 form was created in 2020, but implied allegations were brought forward even earlier.

“This particular document was dated in 2020. But there are notes in the document that date back to 2017. We believe that this human source initially informed the FBI of the bribery scheme back in 2017. So my question to the FBI was, ‘What exactly have you done with this accusation?’” Comer told Fox News host Sean Hannity. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also said Monday that the informant was likely far more credible than former British spy Christopher Steele, who authored an infamous dossier against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016.

“How much you want to bet this source is a lot more credible than Christopher Steele, the guy who created the dossier that they used to go after President Trump?” he said.

“I bet you this source has a lot more credibility. But they will not let us see this document. I hope they do. I hope they let the American people see it.”