National Archives officials have sent some of the records sought by the House Oversight Committee to aides for former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden to approve for release.
The move means the National Archives is unlikely to meet the Aug. 31st deadline Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) set for the agency to hand over the records, a congressional aide told the Washington Examiner.
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Comer is seeking any email that includes one of the pseudonyms Joe Biden used as vice president, any email that included Hunter Biden or one of his closest two business partners, and all draft versions of a speech Joe Biden delivered in Dec. 2015 to Ukrainian legislators.
Joe Biden and Obama will have the opportunity to exert executive privilege over some of the documents, likely deepening the tensions between congressional investigators and the Biden administration.
Comer has also expressed concerns that the National Archives could redact key components of the documents in question, such as the email addresses copied on sensitive messages.
That could prevent congressional investigators from understanding the extent of coordination between Hunter Biden’s businesses and then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office.
Already, the Biden administration appears to have exerted a type of executive privilege over emails in the National Archives’s custody.
The National Archives withheld 200 emails this week from a set of documents it provided to America First Legal in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, citing the presidential communications privilege.
That privilege allows the government to withhold “confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors,” according to the Presidential Records Act.
The FOIA in question had sought emails and documents from Joe Biden’s vice presidential staff that mention Rosemont Seneca, one of Hunter Biden’s main business vehicles at the time.
The emails that the National Archives did produce to America First Legal, a conservative group, showed Hunter Biden’s company working frequently with Joe Biden’s vice presidential office on securing coveted spots at White House events, last-minute White House tours, and personal letters for people connected to the Hunter Biden business network.
The discovery of Joe Biden’s pseudonyms – he used at least three as vice president to send and receive emails — shed more light last month on the extent of Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.
Some of the emails found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop show that he was looped in on his father’s private schedule on days when Joe Biden was set to meet or speak with Ukrainian lawmakers. At the time, Hunter Biden was earning $83,000 per month from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
The House Oversight Committee request is seeking to determine whether Hunter Biden’s then-business partners at Rosemont Seneca, Devon Archer and Eric Schwerin, also enjoyed access to Joe Biden on matters related to Burisma. Archer was also a member of Burisma’s board at the time.
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House Republicans have inched closer to an impeachment inquiry after months of stonewalling by the Biden administration has slowed their investigation.
An effort by the White House to shield Ukraine-related emails from release to the House Oversight Committee would likely fuel calls for the inquiry.