The House Oversight Committee is demanding archived records of then-Vice President Joe Biden’s emails with Hunter Biden regarding Ukraine and Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings in the next step of its investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.
House Oversight wrote a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on Thursday requesting “unrestricted special access” under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) to “Email Messages To And From Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden related to Burisma and Ukraine” as part of its investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings while Joe Biden served as vice president. (RELATED: Former FBI Agent Confirms Biden Transition Team Was Tipped Off To Hunter Biden Interview, Transcript Shows)
READ THE FULL LETTER:
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Biden’s meetings and communications with certain family members and their business associates during his tenure as Vice President. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has published the Biden Vice Presidential Records Collection, which contains information relevant to
the Committee’s work,” the letter reads.
“The Committee seeks unrestricted special access under the PRA to Case Number 2023-0022-F, entitled ‘Email Messages To and/or From Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden related to Burisma and Ukraine,’ which has been published on NARA’s website. These records have been redacted for public release pursuant to the PRA and FOIA,” the letter adds.
House Oversight is specifically demanding documents with Joe Biden’s pseudonyms, Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters and JRB Ware because of a May 26, 2016 email sent to his Robert L. Peters account previewing then-VP Biden’s White House meeting with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. (RELATED: IRS Whistleblower Gary Shapley’s Attorneys Debunk False Claims From Hunter Biden’s Lawyer)
“Boss–8:45am prep for 9am phone call with Pres Poroshenko,” vice presidential assistant John S. Flynn wrote to Joe Biden’s pseudonym with Hunter Biden cc’ed on the email. “Then we’re off to Rhode Island for infrastructure event and then Wilmington for UDel commencement. Nate will have your draft remarks delivered later tonight or with your press clips in the morning.” Joe Biden’s aliases were first reported by the New York Post, and they appear in Hunter Biden’s laptop archive.
The committee is also demanding any document that includes Hunter Biden and his former business associates, Devon Archer and Eric Schwerin. Archer was a Burisma board member alongside Biden and testified before the House Oversight Committee in July about his foreign business dealings with the president’s son. Schwerin served as president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, the investment firm chaired by Hunter Biden and co-founded by Archer.
Devon Archer’s testimony confirms Joe and Hunter Biden had dinner with Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi in Washington, D.C. @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/cfe2Ny06Qn
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) August 3, 2023
In addition, House Oversight is asking NARA for draft versions of the speech then-VP Biden delivered to the Ukrainian parliament Dec. 9, 2015, days after Hunter Biden “called D.C.” on behalf of Burisma executives Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadim Pozharsyi, according to Devon Archer’s testimony. Joe Biden’s speech addressed Ukraine’s rampant corruption and did not address Zlochevsky by name, despite his widely publicized legal troubles involving Ukrainian and British authorities.
Zlochevsky was a former Minister of Ecology under pro-Russia former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was removed as a result of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution that resulted in Poroshenko becoming president. (RELATED: Biden Family ‘Brand’ Made People ‘Intimidated To Mess With’ Burisma, Devon Archer Testified)
Archer was unable to confirm whether Hunter called his father from Burisma’s December 2015 board meeting in Dubai. Days after the board meeting, Biden’s communication staff sent State Department officials talking points on Burisma and Zlochevsky, internal emails show. Archer was able to recall over 20 interactions between Joe Biden and his son’s business associates, including a spring 2014 dinner with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina and a spring 2015 dinner attended by Pozharskyi.
Joe Biden called Poroshenko on Feb. 11, 2016, soon after then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin raided Zlochevsky’s property, Ukrainian outlet Interfax reported. Poroshenko’s office confirmed Feb. 19, 2016, that it received Shokin’s letter of resignation. He was expelled by the Ukrainian parliament in March 2016, more than a month after he filed his resignation, the Kyiv Post reported. Devon Archer told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson in August that Shokin was considered a “threat” to Burisma’s business.
Devon Archer to Tucker Carlson: “Shokin was considered a threat to the business…. I think anyone in government is always a threat and always trying to shake down these businesses that were highly successful…And so at the end of the day, Shokin was taking a look” @DailyCaller https://t.co/LNhZnzMwAO
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) August 4, 2023
Joe Biden spoke about how he orchestrated Shokin’s resignation at a September 2016 event held by the Council on Foreign Relations.
“You remember last year I was authorized to say we’d do the second tranche of a billion dollars,” then-VP Biden said. “And he didn’t fire his chief prosecutor. And because I have the confidence of the president, I was there, and I said: ‘I’m not signing it. Until you fire him, we’re not signing, man. Get it straight. We’re not doing it.'”
The president has denied any involvement with his son’s business dealings and said Archer’s testimony was “not true” in a recent confrontation with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Archer told Carlson it is “categorically false” to say Joe Biden was unaware of Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
“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,” Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, Chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “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,” he continued.
Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board in spring 2014 and received more than $80,000 per month for his services to the company, bank records released by House Oversight show. The committee has discovered more than $20 million in payments to the Biden family and its associates from Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Kazakh and Romanian business partners.
NARA told the Daily Caller it is working on its response to the Congressional inquiry.
Henry Rodgers contributed to this report.