A few days before 2022 comes to an end, the Biden administration is between a rock and a hard place faced with the complicated decision to prevent the National Archives (NARA) from publishing dozens of documents from the Obama era related to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and his closeness to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while the president served as vice president.
Among the records that could see the light is 69 images and 260 emails mentioning Bursma dating back to 2014date on which Biden’s eldest son collaborated with said company and was paid up to $83,333 per month despite having no experience in the energy field.
According to Insider, so far The White House has not mentioned whether it will invoke executive privilege to prevent the documents from being made public on February 28. As reported weeks ago “the National Archives informed the Biden White House and the Obama Foundation in a November 30 letter that it planned to release the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request for vice presidential records.” created between May and December 2014 that contain the word “Burisma”.
The National Archives also said the letter said that “several” of the emails involved media inquiries after it was revealed in 2014 that Hunter Biden would accept a seat on the Burisma board of directors and that 22 other emails were restricted, but they did not mention why.
It is known that under the Presidential Records Act, the legal teams representing the president have their days numbered to claim executive privilege before the emails are released and kept sealed until January 2029.
Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who has represented several federal whistleblowers, told Insider that the legal grounds for the Biden administration to invoke executive privilege are shaky because many of the documents are already in the hands of a third party “Any selective invocation of privileges would undoubtedly only serve to highlight sensitivities.”
Hunter is also the subject of an investigation into whether he lied about his drug use when he bought a gun in late 2018 after an incident between him and his sister-in-law-turned-lover, Hallie Biden.
Source: La Opinion
