House Oversight Committee chair James Comer requested a complete list of Joe Biden’s emails to Hunter Biden from the National Archives under the guise that there’s something nefarious hidden in them that investigators haven’t yet found after six years.
Comer notes in his letter that an email including a Biden’s schedule mentioning a call with the then-Ukrainian president in 2016 was copied to Hunter Biden using an email address set up for Biden using a pseudonym. The then-VP used this account to send his son a copy of his schedule. Insinuating bad acts, Comer only mentions that single occasion of the VP sharing his schedule with his son to make it appear the Bidens were coordinating for the call with Petro Poroshenko; in fact, the VP frequently sent his son his schedule using the email account.
Comer demands copies of all Joe Biden emails for which Hunter, Devon Archer, or Eric Schwerin are cc’d, as well as drafts of the speech Biden delivered in Ukraine in 2015 demanding the removal of the corrupt “diamond prosecutors” which Republicans believe was a corrupt act even though it had been the stated desire of the Obama Administration, a number of Congressional Republicans and virtually every First World democratic government on the planet.
Comer’s showmanship with this request is evident. First, NARA is not going to have personal emails between Biden and his son unless they were done on an official .gov email account; no law requires a federal official to turn over personal correspondence not in a government system to the Archives. Comer is obviously setting up the “cover up” response: “Are you telling me the National Archives doesn’t have a single email or letter Joe Biden sent to Hunter while he was Vice President?” he’ll whine when few items are produced. “Are we supposed to believe he didn’t communicate with his own son???”
Second, this is clearly a fishing expedition with a PR purpose. For months, House Republicans have claimed Biden directed the US policy regarding the removal of the Ukrainian prosecutors. By requesting draft versions of the speech, Comer’s going to question who inserted the language into the speech. Regardless of the answer, Republicans will fashion the scenario to turn Biden into the puppetmaster.