Comer, Jordan, Smith Seek Archivist Shogan’s Testimony Regarding White House Obstruction
White House withholding thousands of records from Biden’s tenure as Vice President
WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Committee on Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, and House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) today invited Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan to participate in a public hearing to assess the National Archives interactions and coordination with the White House regarding requests for records from Joe Biden’s tenure as Vice President. As part of the impeachment inquiry, the House Oversight Committee has requested certain records, including emails where Joe Biden used an alias, Air Force Two manifests, and correspondence with Biden family business associates, but the White House has failed to release thousands of pages of documents.
“The Oversight Committee has previously requested from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) certain records related to President Biden’s tenure as Vice President from 2009 to 2017. NARA has failed to produce the totality of documents requested. The Oversight Committee has engaged with NARA since August 2023 regarding the production of these records, and NARA has responded that the White House has authorized production of only certain tranches of documents. Those documents, in the Committees’ view, include only those that reflect favorably on the President or that are without substance. This is unacceptable,” wrote the Chairmen.
On August 17, 2023, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability requested correspondences in NARA’s possession that were sent to or from various pseudonyms identified as being used by President Biden during his time as Vice President, including Robert L. Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware. Additionally, the Committee requested all drafts of then-Vice President Biden’s speech delivered to the Ukrainian Rada on December 9, 2015. On August 30, 2023, the Committee requested documents regarding then-Vice President Biden’s use of Air Force Two. On September 6, 2023, the Committee requested documents regarding communications with various Biden family member associates and Obama-Biden Administration officials, among other items. On December 5, 2023, the Committee on Ways and Means released an 11-page spreadsheet compiled by an IRS criminal investigator that included dozens of email exchanges between or among Hunter Biden, his business associate Eric Schwerin, and pseudonyms attributable to President Biden between 2010 and 2019. The National Archives has not produced theses to the Oversight Committee. To date, the White House has only permitted the National Archives to release only Vice President records that the White House finds either innocuous or flattering towards President Biden.
“The Committees seek an explanation regarding the disparity between the documents produced to it by NARA and evidence accumulated by criminal investigators showing communications between or among then-Vice President Biden and his family’s business associates. The Committees also seek to understand the White House’s unwillingness to allow NARA to produce documents in a timely manner—including the small subset of documents reflecting then-Vice President Biden’s speech to the Ukrainian Rada in 2015, then-Vice President Biden’s use of Air Force Two, and communications between and among Obama-Biden Administration officials and Biden family business associates,” continued the Chairman. “To assess NARA’s interactions and coordination with the White House regarding the Oversight Committee’s requests, the Oversight Committee invites you to participate in a public hearing on January 31, 2024. Your testimony is critical to understanding whether and how the White House is obstructing the Committee’s investigation.”
The letter to Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan can be found here.