The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is being sued to turn over approximately 5,400 emails connected to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s pseudonym accounts to forward government information and business with his son, Hunter Biden, and others.
Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) filed a federal lawsuit against the agency on Monday after NARA officials confirmed with other sources that Biden used three personal pseudonym email accounts under the names Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters, and JRB Ware but has since “dragged its feet and still has not produced a single email,” the law group said in a news release.
“All too often, public officials abuse their power by using it for their personal or political benefit,” Kimberly Hermann, general counsel for the legal foundation, said. “When they do, many seek to hide it. 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.”
The group identified thousands of potentially responsive records from NARA after submitting a Freedom of Information Act request in June in its latest effort to investigate allegations that Biden communicated with Hunter regarding his foreign business dealings dating back to 2017.
SLF attorneys first asked the federal agency to release Biden’s emails in 2021. However, NARA officials reportedly failed to comply, claiming it did not have custody of his records before January 2017 and could only make the emails public in January 2022.
“Public transparency is the most vital check the citizens have for holding our political class accountable,” Braden Boucek, litigation director for SLF, said. “After over a year of trying to work with NARA, its continued unreasonable delays have forced SLF to file this lawsuit.”
The lawsuit comes after House Republicans began looking into President Biden’s alleged use of a fake name to mask his identity as they ramp up an investigation into the first family.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent a letter to NARA requesting all unredacted records and communications regarding Biden’s official duties as vice president that overlapped Hunter’s activities with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, which employed the then-vice president’s son on its board for several years. The lucrative arrangement has drawn scrutiny by investigators in addition to other foreign business ventures. Joe Biden served as vice president from January 2009 to January 2017.
In particular, Comer said he seeks documents in which the elder Biden allegedly used a pseudonym; his son’s former business partners Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, or Devon Archer are copied; and all drafts of then-Vice President Biden’s speech delivered to Ukraine’s parliament in December 2015.
“The Committee is concerned that foreign nationals have sought access and influence by engaging in lucrative business relationships with high-profile political figures’ immediate family members, including members of the Biden family,” Comer wrote.
A NARA spokesperson told The Daily Wire that the agency received the request and will respond in accordance with the requirements of the Presidential Records Act.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.