Joe Biden briefed by advisors about foreign policy on insecure pseudonymous email accounts: memos

New email records released by the National Archives show then-Vice President Joe Biden was briefed about sensitive foreign policy matters by then-advisor Antony Blinken on his private email account, including details about a failed North Korean missile launch. 

Joe Biden, now president, first faced scrutiny about potential private accounts after emails contained on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop showed the then-vice president in the Obama administration was using an email address with a pseudonym to communicate about business and official matters with his son, other family members, and senior staff. 

One new email, part of several batches released by the National Archives pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit shows that in the hours following a North Korean missile launch in April 2012, Blinken—who was then Biden’s national security advisor—sent a message to the vice president’s private email account "robinware456@gmail.com" with details about the sensitive national security matter. 

“Just in case you missed it, the North Korean rocket failed somewhere between the first and second stages,” Blinken wrote. “Will take some time to determine why.” The future Secretary of State signed the email message, “tony.” 

You can read the email below: 

The launch marked a provocative escalation during a time of leadership transition in the communist dictatorship as Kim Jong Un was assuming powers from his father, who had died the preceding December. One day after the email, North Korea confirmed that the rocket launch had indeed failed. 

82,000 pages

Blinken followed up on his first email two days later, presumably with more updates, but the contents of that communication were redacted by the National Archives under the “P5” exemption, which excludes information from FOIA requests that “would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors,” under the Presidential Records Act.

The memos reviewed by Just the News are part of the several batches of communications released by the National Archives under pressure from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Southeastern Legal Foundation prompted by Just the News' reporting three years ago that revealed Biden used at least three different pseudonym private email accounts when he was Barack Obama’s vice president. 

In a court filing last October, NARA disclosed that it had located 82,000 pages of emails Biden sent or received on three email accounts using fake names, dwarfing the number involved in the Hillary Clinton email scandal. The existence of the records suggests, however, that even though Biden was using private email addresses to conduct business, that they were preserved according to the mandates of federal law.

Yet, the sensitive nature of some of the contents, which included briefings on foreign policy issues by three consecutive national security advisors, raise concerns about the use of the more insecure private accounts. 

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. 

These series of emails was not the first time that Blinken contacted the then-vice president on his private account. In December 2011, the advisor reached out to Biden to inform him of a Principals Committee meeting about Iraq. 

“Main purpose is to discuss OSC way forward. Also update on political situation,” Blinken wrote, in an apparent reference to the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, which was formed earlier that month. 

“Pls let me know whether you want to attend. I will be there regardless,” he continued. 

“I’ll be there,” Biden replied. 

Just the News previously identified another email from the release which Blinken sent to Biden about the geopolitical dynamics of Iraq. 

“Mosul -- is due west of Erbil BUT in Iraq proper, NOT in the KRG. It's just west of the green line on the Iraq side,” Blinken wrote offering the vice president some geographic context. 

A short while later, Blinken added some sensitive observations about possible violence. 

“Further to this – there are parts of Nineveh Province that are disputed and a very small piece of Mosul itself, but the Kurds make no claim to the city as an entity. Lots of oil though, so could become a flash point,” Blinken wrote. After Blinken left Biden’s office and moved to the State Department in early 2013, his successor Jake Sullivan continued to use the private email account to brief the vice president, the records show. 

For example, in one June 2013 email Sullivan appears to have briefed Biden on a situation regarding India, however, the contents of the communication were fully redacted by the Archives under the same P5 exemption. 

The following month, Biden’s assistant Fran Person forwarded draft remarks from Sullivan that the vice president was set to deliver at the opening session of the US-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue, which took place in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2013. 

You can read those emails below: 

The emails also show that Biden frequently used the email to communicate with his family members, sometimes about business. On some occasions, Joe Biden would send information to the government emails of his White House staff from his private email account and include his sons Hunter and Beau and his brother James Biden, Just the News previously reported. For his part, Biden has consistently denied having any knowledge or involvement with Hunter's business dealings.

For instance, on Oct. 19, 2010, the then-vice president sent an article from The New York Times about planned House GOP budget cuts to a half dozen of his top staff, including then-Chief of Staff Ron Klain and spokesman Jay Carney. He included both of his sons, Hunter Biden and the late Beau Biden, as well as his younger brother James. Neither his sons or his brother had any official capacity to act or advise upon those proposed budget cuts. 

Any use of private email for official business by government officials is discouraged under the law and the Federal Records Act requires them to preserve all government-related communications conducted on private accounts. 

The fact that NARA has such a large collection of Biden’s emails suggests the vice president complied. However, the scathing 2019 State Department review of Hillary Clinton's misuse of personal email  found highlighted other security vulnerabilities in using a private account. 

"The use of a private email system to conduct official business added an increased degree of risk of compromise as a private system lacks the network monitoring and intrusion detection capabilities of State Department networks," the final report noted.