News/Commentary

Secret Service claims it has ‘no records’ of visitors to Biden in Delaware, can’t respond to FOIA request

April 21, 2022 | | Print Article

Despite the fact that President Joe Biden has spent about a quarter of all his days during his first year in the White House at his residences in Delaware, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) claims it has “no records” of who visited POTUS there, thus they can not provide that information in response to a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request.

The New York Post requested more than a year of visitor log records in order to determine who dropped by the president’s Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach homes, either for “official meetings or less formal lobbying efforts,” but according to Secret Service FOIA officer Kevin Tyrrell, the records just don’t exist.

In a Monday response to The Post, Tyrrell stated that “[t]he Secret Service FOIA Office searched all Program Offices that were likely to contain potentially responsive records, and no records were located.”

The request presumably came from The Post as a follow-up to the paper’s now-vindicated “laptop from hell” investigation and the ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings —  including some involving the president’s brother, Jim — and potential tax fraud, and according to The Post, some of those dealings may have taken place at Joe Biden’s homes.

“Documents and photos from a laptop that formerly belonged to Hunter Biden indicate that he introduced his dad to business associates from China, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine — including at the vice president’s residence in Washington,” The Post reports, adding that “official business” is conducted outside of D.C.

“Biden was at one of his Delaware homes for 99 days during his first year in office, including for official business, such as an Oct. 24 breakfast where Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) lobbied centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to support Biden’s Build Back Better Act social spending plan,” The Post states.

 

The hunt for elusive presidential visitor logs has long been a source of contention among those who fight for greater transparency.

According to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who has also led a charge to obtain presidential visitor logs, the Secret Service is playing a “shell game.”

“Obviously the Secret Service knows and tracks who is visiting President Biden at his homes in Delaware and they are playing a shell game with the public to keep that information secret,” said Fitton.

And plans to keep it secret have been no secret.

Twice, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has stated that visitor logs from Delaware would not be voluntarily published.

At a January press briefing, Psaki stated, “Well, the president goes to Delaware because it’s his home. It’s also where his son and his former wife are buried. And it’s a place that is obviously close to his heart.”

“A lot of presidents go visit their home when they are president,” Psaki continued. “We also have gone a step further than the prior administration in many administrations in releasing visitor logs of people who visit the White House and will continue to do that.”

https://twitter.com/goodblackdude/status/1483838345323024384?s=20&t=o1RHhM9tSXTRH7uf_GBYOg

The ability of the USSS to withhold, at the president’s discretion, information from the visitor logs came courtesy of now-Attorney General Merrick Garland in a 2013 federal appeals court ruling.

“Garland wrote for a three-judge DC Circuit panel that the president’s constitutional right to confidential communications means that the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t apply to visitor logs kept by the Secret Service — even though they seem to meet the definition of ‘agency records’ under FOIA,” according to The Post.

The ruling was used by both the Obama and Trump administrations to deny the disclosure of logs, but with the authentication of Hunter’s laptop and the emails stored on it now established, logs of who visited former Vice President and now President Joe Biden are arguably more relevant than ever, especially in light of one email in which Hunter allegedly indicated that the “big guy” would earn a 10% equity stake as a result of Hunter’s dealings with CEFC China Energy — a deal that landed Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim Biden $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018.

According to Tony Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden business partner, the “big guy” is Joe Biden.

It is just one of many questionable deals struck by Hunter and chronicled in his damning emails, which appear to suggest potential “pay to play” arrangements while Joe Biden was vice president.

“Photos and emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop indicate that Joe Biden in 2015 hosted his son and a group of Mexican business associates at the vice president’s official residence,” The Post reports. “In 2016, Hunter Biden apparently emailed one of those associates while aboard Air Force Two for an official visit to Mexico, complaining that he hadn’t received reciprocal business favors after ‘I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration.'”

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles