Group suing for Biden’s pseudonymic emails asks court to speed up Archives’ work

The group suing the National Archives to obtain Joe Biden’s pseudonymous emails has filed a new brief arguing that the court should order the agency to speed up its slow processing of documents responsive to the group’s FOIA request in the face of a potential years-long delay.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in June of 2022. SLF is seeking “emails of then-Vice President Biden in three pseudonymous accounts: robinware456@gmail.com, JRBWare@gmail.com, and Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov,” according to the new filing.

So far, NARA has delayed nineteen months in producing the the approximately 18,000 pages of records responsive to the request for communications by then-Vice President Biden in which he used a pseudonym email. 

After this already months-long delay, NARA recently requested an additional two and a half years to process the voluminous documents, according to the court filing. 

"In our filing today, SLF is simply asking the Court to order NARA to comply with the law and produce then-Vice-President Biden’s pseudonym emails that he used to send government information," SLF told Just the News on Tuesday. "NARA has already delayed production by 19 months and it now demands at least an additional 2.5 years to process these emails, delaying production until at the very earliest 2026. NARA’s continued delay is not only unreasonable, but it frustrates the purpose of the FOIA and robs the American public of its right to view government records," they continued. 

You can read SLF’s new filing below:

The National Archives, under pressure from SLF’s lawsuit, found 82,000 pages of responsive documents, Just the News reported last October citing previous court filings in the matter. SLF worked with NARA to narrow the scope of its request in order to expedite the agency’s processing of responsive documents, according to the new filing.

GOP House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has also worked to obtain the records of Biden’s pseudonymous emails from his time as vice president. Chairman Comer lambasted the agency last fall after it provided only 14 pages of the 82,000 relevant documents requested by the committee, floating accusations of obstruction by the administration.

Last year, Just the News documented Joe Biden’s repeated use of pseudonymous emails to communicate with his son, Hunter Biden, about personal topics and business interests. Comer believes these emails may contain evidence of what House Republicans allege is an influence peddling scheme by then-Vice President Biden and his family.