A legal group staffed by former members of the Trump administration says that if President Biden blocks the release of documents that may contain information on Hunter Biden’s relationship with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, “he will have only proven just how much he has to hide.”
America First Legal is one of several groups who have filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking Obama-era documents that reference “Burisma.” The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is set to release nearly 300 emails that match the request, but the White House may stop the release of these records by invoking executive privilege.
The White House has refused to say whether Biden intends to do so, but AFL president Stephen Miller, a former advisor and speechwriter for President Trump, issued a warning shot to the administration Saturday, threatening legal action to go after those records.
“America First Legal launched the request for these National Archive records, and is now suing in federal court to obtain them, in order to fight public corruption of the highest order. Influence peddling for cash threatens our national security, allows foreign adversaries to extort our leaders, and undermines all public faith and confidence in government. And, in many cases, it is criminal,” Miller told Fox News Digital.
Former White House senior advisor and director of speechwriting Steven Miller speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference held at the Hilton Anatole on July 11, 2021, in Dallas, Texas.
(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“We will fight it. We will expose it. We will leave no dark corner sheltered from the disinfecting light of justice. And if President Biden tries to block our request, in brazen defiance of the law, he will have only proven just how much he has to hide — and steeled our determination to find it and share it for all in the public to see. Our lawyers stand at the ready,” he said.
AFL submitted its FOIA requests on August 10. The group is seeking records of all communications between then-Vice President Biden’s office and his son Hunter and his brother James, as well as official government travel records of Biden family visits to the Obama White House.
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President Biden waves alongside his son Hunter Biden after attending mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, South Carolina, on Aug. 13, 2022.
(NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
In a Nov. 30, letter, NARA informed the Biden White House that it has cleared 69 images and 282 email messages mentioning “Burisma” for release in compliance with FOIA requests. There were 22 related emails that contain exempted information and are restricted, as well as 75 messages that will be partially redacted if the president permits them to be released, Insider reported.
Draft documents that are “part of the deliberative or policy-making process” are exempt from FOIA requests, as is information that could violate an individual’s privacy or expose trade secrets. NARA did not say which exemptions the 22 restricted emails fall under.
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A building that reportedly houses an office of a subsidiary of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings Ltd, in Kiev, Ukraine Jan. 14, 2020. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko.
The FOIA requests were filed by AFL, members of the press and other groups after Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board in 2014, a lucrative position that paid as much as $83,333 a month despite Biden’s lack of experience in the energy sector.
Hunter Biden’s relationship with Burisma has been the focus of Biden family corruption allegations from Republicans, who have accused the family of leveraging Joe Biden’s position as vice president in foreign business dealings. President Biden has previously denied any involvement in his son’s business dealings. The emails, if released, could shed light on the nature of Hunter Biden’s relationship with Burisma and whether the president has told the truth.
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Fox News reached out to the White House and asked whether President Biden will invoke executive privilege to block the documents from being released, but did not receive a response.
