On July 30 of this year, Senator Johnson and I sent a
letter to the White House Counsel.
That letter was based on media reports that then-Vice
President Biden used private email for government business.
As part of that use, he sent government information to his
son, Hunter Biden.
The news reports provided details about then-Vice
President Biden’s email addresses at that time and the fake names that he used
for them.
As one example from the reported emails in 2016, an
employee in the Office of the Vice President emailed Biden his schedule and
copied Hunter Biden.
In another email in 2016, that same employee reportedly
emailed Vice President Biden about early morning preparation for a 9 a.m. phone
call with the Ukrainian president.
Hunter Biden was again reportedly copied on that email.
As we all know, Hunter Biden served on the board of a
corrupt Ukrainian energy company at the time of these emails.
Certainly, Hunter Biden would’ve been quite interested in any and all information relating to United States government communications with the Ukrainian government.
Now, if these reports are accurate, it’s unclear whether
Vice President Biden forwarded related emails to a government account to
satisfy federalrecord keeping requirements.
Sound familiar, doesn’t it?
Just ask Hillary Clinton.
Given Vice President Biden’s apparent pattern and practice
with government email, Senator Johnson and I would like to know if this pattern
and practice has continued as president.
So, on July 30, Senator Johnson and I asked exactly
that.
First, we
asked, “What steps did then-Vice President Biden take to ensure
that all his government emails and related communications were properly stored
and archived?”
Second, we asked, “Does President Biden use non-government
email to communicate government business or email his family members government
information? If so, what steps have
been taken to ensure that those communications satisfy federal record-keeping
and archival requirements?”
These are simple questions that President Biden can quickly
answer.
Moreover, it would be quite easy for the president to deny
the news reports if they weren’t accurate.
Our letter provided President Biden that opportunity.
Todate, we haven’t received a response.
It’s been over 3 months.
The fact that the White House Counsel’s Office
and President Biden can’t find the time to answer these threshold questions
draws suspicion.
One would think that the White House would gladly answer
that the president isn’t using government email to communicate government
business with family members.
One would think that the White House would gladly say that
it’s properly archiving email records.
This is a matter of transparency, and
the public deserves answers.
