(CNSNews.com) -- A government watchdog organization, Judicial Watch, recently filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI, seeking records about a gun owned by Hunter Biden that reportedly was thrown into a trash dumpster opposite a high school in Delaware in October 2018.
“The FBI and Secret Service have both been implicated in a corrupt clean-up operation to protect Hunter Biden from the criminal consequences of his gun scandal,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in an April 11 press release.
The lawsuit, filed with the U.S. District Court for D.C. on April 4, is in response to the FBI's objection to a regular FOIA request about the matter on Jan. 30, 2023.
In that request, Judicial Watch asked for the following,
In late February, the FBI said it was exempt from the FOIA request under certain rules. Judicial Watch appealed that claim but did not receive a response by the March 28 deadline. Thus, the FBI apparently is in violation of FOIA.
The lawsuit requests the same information as detailed in the January FOIA letter.
In relation to the topic, Judicial Watch reported in February 2023 that it did receive "records from the United States Secret Service that implicate the FBI in the unusual action to help Hunter Biden."
For instance, text messages apparently written by Hunter Biden and discovered on his laptop were published by the Daily Mail and The New York Post. In one of the texts, Hunter Biden apparently wrote:
“She stole the gun out of my trunk lock box and threw it in a garbage can full to the top at Jansens [sic]. Then told me it was my problem to deal with."
“Then when the police the FBI the secret service came on the scene she said she took it from me because she was scared I would harm myself due to o my drug and alcohol problem and our volatile relationship and that she was afraid for the kids.”
On March 25, 2021, Politico reported, "Hallie [Biden] took Hunter’s gun and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store, only to return later to find it gone.
"Delaware police began investigating, concerned that the trash can was across from a high school and that the missing gun could be used in a crime, according to law enforcement officials and a copy of the police report obtained by POLITICO.
"But a curious thing happened at the time: Secret Service agents approached the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork involving the sale, according to two people, one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact."
Politico further reported, "While police questioned Hunter and Hallie, two Secret Service agents arrived at the store where Hunter had purchased the gun, StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Wilmington, according to the two people familiar with the incident. The agents showed their badges and identification cards to Palmieri, the store’s owner, and asked to take possession of the Firearms Transaction Record that Hunter had filled out to buy the gun earlier that month, according to the people familiar with the incident."
Among the emails obtained by Judicial Watch is a Feb. 24, 2021 missive headed "Wilmington Inquiry." The email is a draft response by the Secret Service about the gun incident. In the statement it says, "US Secret Service records confirm that the agency did not provide protection to any member of the Biden family in 2018, and that the Secret Service had no involvement in this alleged incident."
In reference to the emails and documents it received in February 2023, Tom Fitton said, “These new documents suggest that one can’t take at face value the Secret Service’s denial that it wasn’t involved in the Hunter Biden gun cover-up."