'Incompetence or corruption': Sen. Ron Johnson on Secret Service missing Hunter Biden emails

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., says the Secret Service is "completely arrogant" and is either incompetent or corrupt after the agency claimed it did not have several years of emails on Hunter Biden's travels, despite the fact that his laptop showed otherwise.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson have spent years attempting to obtain records of communications between President Joe Biden's son and the Secret Service.

While the law enforcement agency said it did not have communications from 2010, 2011, or 2013, Just the News found that Hunter Biden's laptop, which is now in FBI custody, contained about five dozen emails between him and the Secret Service.

"We've been after these travel records for years," Johnson told "Just the News - Not Noise" on Wednesday. 

"Here's what they did provide us. This is what it looks like," Johnson said as he held up two pages almost entirely with black redactions to show Just the News Editor-in-Chief John Solomon and co-host Amanda Head.

He said the Secret Service provided him and Grassley with more than 250 redacted pages after they requested information on Hunter Biden's travel records.

"Hunter Biden has [a record of communications]. Why didn't the Secret Service retain it?" Johnson asked. 

"So I can only come to two conclusions; I can make two assumptions. Either it's complete incompetence, or corruption. Take your pick. Either way, there's not a good explanation," he said.

Johnson has been pressing the Secret Service for transparency for years. More recently, he asked the department's director last month why agents did not find a pipe bomb reportedly placed outside the Democratic National Committee during a sweep of the area before then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrived there on Jan. 6, 2021.

"I'm getting sick and tired of these agencies in the deep state. And I'll call it the deep state, because they refuse to provide the American public the information, the truth that the American public deserves," Johnson told "Just the News - Not Noise."

"I'm an elected representative of the American people. [The Secret Service] should be complying with legitimate congressional oversight, which is what this is, and yet they just thumb their nose at us. They're completely arrogant. It's unacceptable," the Wisconsin Republican said. 

Even under President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress were unable to obtain information from government agencies, Johnson said.

"We couldn't get [the truth] out of the deep state, largely because the deep state is primarily populated with leftists," Johnson said.

He is optimistic that stories such as the one Just the News published about Hunter Biden's laptop will increase Americans' awareness and encourage citizens to be more active.

"Hopefully [with] disclosures like this… the American public will start getting outraged and put pressure on the administration," he said.