The National Archives revealed this week that it had thousands of emails from then-Vice President Joe Biden, seemingly confirming a key part of a Republican investigation into his family’s business dealings.
The emails were revealed as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIL) request from the Southeastern Legal Foundation. According to the documents provided by the National Archives, Biden wrote emails under a number of assumed names, including Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters and JRB Ware.
The original FOIL request was from June 2022 and was recently fulfilled.
In total, the National Archives revealed almost 5,400 such emails and other records involving Biden.
The practice is not entirely without precedent. Former President Barack Obama used a pseudonym in unofficial email correspondence, as well.
The White House admitted to using such an “alternate email” system in 2013, stating that it made “eminent sense,” according to then-White House press secretary Jay Carney.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) requested more information regarding the use of such emails during the Obama administration.
🚨 ROBERT L. PETERS UPDATE 🚨@USNatArchives has admitted to possessing approximately 5,400 EMAILS & RECORDS connected to then-Vice President Joe Biden's pseudonym accounts.
Read Here👇https://t.co/grMRYVWxNY
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 29, 2023
Comer requested a number of records, including pseudonymous emails from Biden’s tenure as vice president from the National Archives.
Comer also requested any “document or communication in which Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin or Devon Archer was included either as a sender, recipient, copied or was included in the contents of the document or communication” and information tied to a 2015 trip by the vice president to Ukraine.
Comer challenged Biden’s earlier statement that there was “an absolute wall” between himself and the business practices of his son Hunter. The Kentucky Republican said that “evidence reveals that access was wide open for his family’s influence peddling.”
Comer stated that the younger Biden and his business partners received information regarding Biden’s “official government duties where they had a financial interest.” Hunter Biden received at least ten emails regarding his father’s schedule during one period in 2016.
Comer further requested that original copies of redacted records be revealed in order to “further our investigation into the Biden family’s corruption.”
