The National Archives is holding about 5,400 emails from accounts set up by now-President Joe Biden that he used to communicate under a fake name with his son, Hunter, while Joe Biden was vice president in the Obama administration, the Southeastern Legal Foundation said Monday.
The foundation announced that it has filed a lawsuit to obtain the emails after the Archives did not honor a Freedom of Information Act request for the material.
The lawsuit includes as one of its exhibits a letter from National Archives Director Stephanie Oriabure to Kimberly S. Hermann, general counsel for the Southeastern Legal Foundation.
In the letter, dated June 24, 2022, Oriabure wrote that the Archives had identified almost 5,400 items “responsive” to the SLF’s request.
“We have performed a search of our collection for Vice Presidential records related to your request and have identified approximately 5,138 email messages, 25 electronic files and 200 pages of potentially responsive records that must be processed in order to respond to your request,” Oriabure wrote.
In June the National Archives and Records Administration released a case record of four emails, two of which were redacted and two of which were withheld, Two 2016 emails were sent from former Biden aide John Flynn to the then-vice president. Hunter Biden was copied on both, according to Newsweek.
Biden used the names Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters, and JRB Ware, the foundation reported on its website.
The foundation said it first tried to get the emails in 2021 but was told they could not be released until after Jan. 20, 2022, five years after the archives took possession of them.
The foundation said in news release that it filed a Freedom of Information request on June 9, 2022.
“Unfortunately, after identifying nearly 5,400 potentially responsive records, NARA has dragged its feet and still has not produced a single email,” the release stated.
In the release, Hermann said too many public officials abuse their power for “personal or political benefite.”
“When they do, many seek to hide it,” she said. “The only way to preserve governmental integrity is for NARA to release Biden’s nearly 5,400 emails to SLF and thus the public. The American public deserves to know what is in them.”
Brandon Boucek, the foundation’s litigation director, said court action was the group’s last resort.
“Public transparency is the most vital check the citizens have for holding our political class accountable. After over a year of trying to work with NARA, its continued unreasonable delays have forced SLF to file this lawsuit,” Boucek said in the release.
The foundation noted that House Republicans are also trying to get their hands on the emails as part of their investigation into the business activities of Biden family members.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich vented his disgust with the revelation in a social media post.
“So the National Archives could find President Trump’s material quickly but somehow missed 5400 emails from Vice President Biden’s archives. Oh and those only happen to be the 5400 emails that involve business, corruption and Hunter Biden. Fire the archivist now,” he wrote.
So the National Archives could find President Trump’s material quickly but somehow missed 5400 emails from Vice President Biden’s archives. Oh and those only happen to be the 5400 emails that involve business, corruption and Hunter Biden. Fire the archivist now
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) August 29, 2023
“Joe Biden has stated there was ‘an absolute wall’ between his family’s foreign business schemes and his duties as Vice President, but evidence reveals that access was wide open for his family’s influence peddling,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said earlier this month in discussing his request to the National Archives to provide Biden’s emails, according to The Hill.
“We already have evidence of then-Vice President Biden speaking, dining, and having coffee with his son’s foreign business associates. We also know that Hunter Biden and his associates were informed of then-Vice President Biden’s official government duties in countries where they had a financial interest. The National Archives must provide these unredacted records to further our investigation into the Biden family’s corruption,” the Kentucky Republican said.
A report by Just the News indicated that the pseudonym emails were used for multiple purposes by father and son.
It cited a June 2014 email from Hunter Biden to his father about an appointment to be filled at the Treasury Department.
“Before you fill the positions, pls talk to me,” Hunter Biden wrote.
“Call me right away, Dad,” Joe Biden responded.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
