National Archives hands more Biden emails to House GOP amid impeachment probe: Report

by Lauren Irwin - 03/30/24 1:55 PM ET

Greg Nash
Republicans are weighing criminal referrals to the Justice Department in lieu of bringing articles of impeachment against President Biden, that move would provide an offramp for a struggling investigation, but one would likewise force the GOP’s hand on a key issue: demonstrating the president or his family broke the law.

The National Archives has sent the House Oversight Committee nearly 6,000 pages of emails as part of Republican’s investigation into President Biden.

The pair of letters addressed to Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and obtained by Axios, is dated March 26 and is responding to a request from last September about “certain Presidential and Vice Presidential records from [the] Obama Administration.”

Comer asked the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in August to provide unredacted emails from Biden’s time as vice president that involve his son Hunter Biden and Ukraine as part of the panel’s probe into the family’s foreign business dealings.

In its recent letter, the agency said that it is conducting a “rolling notification process” to representatives of the “former and incumbent Presidents.”

After conducting its review of the records and Comer’s request, the NARA will be able to provide the Oversight committee with the records, the letter said.

A senior House Democratic aide told Axios that NARA has publicly released more than 20,000 pages of emails related to Hunter Biden and the Biden family and more than 75,000 more pages of records to House Republicans.

“Please note that some of these records contain personally identifiable information (PII), including personal addresses, phone numbers, and other nonpublic information,” the letter said. “Accordingly, we ask that the Committee protect such information from public disclosure.”

A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee acknowledged that NARA has “turned over some documents” but argued it’s not enough.

In an emailed statement, the spokesperson said “Since August the White House has been withholding all drafts of then Vice President Biden’s speech delivered to the Ukrainian Rada in 2015. Chairmen Comer and Jordan have repeatedly asked the White House to hand over these drafts but the White House continues to obstruct the House’s impeachment inquiry.”

NARA told The Hill it “continues to respond to requests for Presidential records” by the committee in accordance with the Presidential Records Act. It could “confirm that records were provided to the Committee this week.”

NARA’s letter to Comer comes a week after Comer suggested the impeachment vote against Biden may not be the “best path” forward, following the most recent House Oversight hearing on the probe. Comer also said he believed criminal referrals would be a better way to proceed.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for further comment.

Updated April 2 at 3:11 p.m.