The White House will be in a tough spot after the National Archives plans to release Hunter Biden’s emails imminently. The archives plan to release hundreds of pages of internal records from the Obama administration, including records covering Hunter Biden’s personal and business relationships with Ukraine.
However, President Biden continues to have the option of stopping the release of the records through executive privilege. According to several reports, the National Archives has records of almost 300 partial or complete emails between Hunter Biden and Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
The emails go back to 2014 when the elder Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama. Critics accuse Hunter Biden of peddling access to his father to benefit himself and possibly the president.
On November 30, the National Archives told the White House it received a “Burisma” request through a Freedom of Information Act request. A nonprofit group, America’s First Legal, founded by an adviser to former President Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, filed the FOIA request.
The FOIA request could be gameplay between the Biden and Trump presidential camps.
President Biden assailed Trump’s invocation of the Presidential Records Act; Biden now on the defensive
In the past few months, Trump cited the Presidential Records Act to prevent the National Archives from releasing his administration’s records to the House’s January 6, 2021, committee. President Biden condemned the move.
Now, President Biden is on the defensive, seeking to potentially seek blockage of the public release of the younger Biden’s emails, which could be damning. The Presidential Records Act gives an active president 60 days to assert a claim of executive privilege before releasing the emails.
Once President Biden invokes the executive privilege, the emails will remain sealed until January 2029. A letter from America First Legal to the National Archives states several emails are “related to press inquiries” following the appointment of Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board in 2014 — earning a monthly salary of $50,000 despite no experience in the energy field.
The younger Biden worked under Burisma owner and Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky.
According to reports, Zlochevsky had $23 million frozen by British authorities between the hirings of Hunter Biden and his assistant Devon Archer. As members of Burisma’s board, Biden and Archer were paid a total of $3 million.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa says that FBI whistleblowers have “voluminous evidence” against Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma.
