Secret Service says it doesn’t have Hunter Biden emails from some years, his laptop says otherwise

Days ahead of his trip to Mexico in spring 2011, Hunter Biden got an email from a Secret Service agent coordinating his protection detail.

“Hunter, when you have some free time, I would like to discuss the Monterrey trip with you,” Secret Service agent Yvonne DiCristoforo wrote then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son on April 28, 2011.

"I have some specific information to provide you that we received from our Mexico City office,” she added. “I know you are out of the office this evening, but if you could contact me at your convenience, I would appreciate it."

Secret Service records show Hunter Biden, in fact, took the trip with agents protecting him between May 15 to May 17, 2011.

The email, contained on a Hunter Biden laptop now in FBI custody and reviewed by Just the News, may not seem that significant at first blush. But it has significant meaning to Senate investigators.

Why? Because the Secret Service, after years of delay, told GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley, Iowa, and Ron Johnson, Wisconsin, last month the agency has been unable to locate any emails or other records showing its agents coordinating travel for Hunter Biden.

"The Secret Service worked extensively with your committees, and agreed to search parameters provided by your office as to identify communications regarding Mr. Biden's travel," Secret Service Director James M. Murray wrote the senators on Feb. 14.

"These search parameters did not yield communications for the years 2010, 2011, or 2013," Murray added.

In fact, Just the News found about five dozen emails between Hunter Biden and his Secret Service handlers on the FBI-seized laptop for those same years, as well as other ones in other years that Senate investigators said they had not previously seen.

Some emails located by Just the News had clear subject lines such as "upcoming trip" or "all checked in" that made clear they involved the subject of travel. And most appeared to be routine to the daily business of protecting the vice president's family on various trips.

"Hi Hunter and Kathleen," Agent Ian Rifield wrote in a Feb. 17, 2010, email to the vice president's son and his then-wife. “Enjoy your travels and please be careful in Haiti. I also would ask that you make sure that each of the young ladies has my cell phone number programmed into their cell phone and that they know to call me if they have any problems while you are gone."

Hunter Biden wrote back the agent two days later claiming one leg of his trip had been canceled. "We are not going to Antartica … State dept again,” the vice presidential son wrote.

The agent expressed dismay at the development. "Sorry about that … the guys were looking forward to going and training hard,” Rifield wrote back. “Enjoy the rest of your trip."

Rifield has won a special award for his service, records show.

A few of the emails veered into the sort of politics or personal favors most Americans might not expect from the Secret Service.

For instance, DiCristoforo wrote the younger Biden on March 30, 2012 that an airline pilot she called "The Capt" had "wanted to pass to you that he is a Democrat. I think he is a fan."

DiCristoforo is now listed by the agency as the Special Agent in Charge in Cincinnati. 

In March 2013, Hunter Biden asked for "favor" from the Secret Service to press local law enforcement to help out a friend on a security matter, each using shorthand nicknames for each other.

"C- below is an email from a friend of mine in NYC," Hunter Biden wrote a Secret Service agent named Charles Marino on March 7, 2013. "He is a part of a basketball league named in honor of a deceased friend. The league is largely Jewish and many people including the family have been receiving these (see below) disturbing messages (in NYC, Long Island and NJ).

"They can't get any local law enforcement attention for some reason, even though the threatening messages continue. Is there someone you know in law enforcement DA's office or police that he could speak to that would help them take action?" Hunter Biden asked. "An example of the hate mail they have received is attached. Thanks buddy."

Marino responded three days later. “Hunt, Didn't forget about this. My buddy has been out of town. Just spoke with him and I'll be getting a contact for your friend tomorrow afternoon," the agent wrote. "I'll send it once I have."

 A spokesman for the Secret Service and its parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, did not immediately respond to emails Tuesday from Just the News seeking comment.

But the two senators who have worked for years to get more details on the Secret Service's activities as Hunter Biden crisscrossed the world from China to Ukraine seeking foreign business on his father's vice presidential watch expressed frustration Tuesday night.

"For years, Sen. Johnson and I have been trying to get a clear picture of Hunter Biden's communications with the Secret Service when he was under their protection," Grassley told Just the News. "The Secret Service says they don’t have records for three years during Hunter Biden's time as a protectee, but I have reason to believe they do.

"In fact, I suspect there was also communication between Secret Service employees and Hunter Biden even after his protection ended. The Secret Service needs to come clean, and I intend to get to the bottom of this discrepancy."

Johnson demanded that the service "immediately produce all records responsive to our October 2020 request or explain to us why the agency did not retain records it is required by law to retain."

"The Secret Service’s inability, or perhaps unwillingness, to comply with my requests for records relating to Hunter Biden is unacceptable," he told Just the News. "We now know that Hunter Biden's laptop contained records that the Secret Service claimed they did not possess and therefore failed to produce to me and Senator Grassley. I can think of only two explanations for their lack of compliance, either the Secret Service is incompetent or it is corrupt."

The emails Just the News located are from a laptop a Delaware repair shop owner said was abandoned by Hunter Biden in 2019. The shop owner turned it over to the FBI under subpoena in December 2019 as part of a probe into Hunter Biden's business dealings. 

At first, Biden family defenders and some national security experts claimed the laptop was disinformation, and some social media banned stories about contents from it. But then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declared in 2020 there was no evidence the laptop was disinformation.

The FBI's former chief handwriting analyst also reviewed the receipt for the laptop and concluded it contained Hunter Biden's signature, affirming the store keeper's account.