Comer, Jordan, Smith Demand White House Release All Drafts of Then-VP Biden’s Ukrainian 2015 Rada Speech as Part of Impeachment Inquiry

White House has refused to release these documents for over five months

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) today are calling on the White House to immediately authorize the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to provide all drafts of then-Vice President Joe Biden’s speech delivered to the Ukrainian Rada on December 9, 2015. This request comes as part of the House’s inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach President Biden.

In his December 2015 speech, then-Vice President Biden called for the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the Ukrainian energy company for which Hunter Biden was on the board of directors. According to public reporting, then-Vice President Biden “called an audible” and changed U.S. policy toward Ukraine to benefit his son on the plane ride to Ukraine. President Biden later bragged about withholding a U.S. loan guarantee if Ukraine did not fire the prosecutor.

Chairman Comer requested these documents over five months ago, but the White House has refused to allow NARA to release them to Congress. Within a week of receiving the request, NARA indicated it was able to provide the White House with the full set of documents covering the request for all drafts of then-Vice President Biden’s speech. However, under federal law, NARA must receive White House approval before releasing the documents. For over five months, the White House has refused to authorize the release.

“For more than five months the White House has declined to authorize the production of these draft speeches to the Oversight Committee or to assert a valid privilege over them. Such a lengthy delay in processing a discrete and limited category of documents is unacceptable and appears to represent an attempt to obstruct the Committees’ legitimate investigation. These dilatory tactics must cease, and the White House must permit NARA to release these documents forthwith … If the White House does not permit the production of these documents, the Oversight Committee will consider the use of compulsory process to require the White House’s production of the speeches,” wrote the Chairmen to White House Counsel Edward Siskel.

Read the letter to Mr. Siskel here.