White House Hasn’t Confirmed If They’ll Block National Archives From Releasing Trove of Hunter Biden Emails After FOIA Request

Earlier this year, a Freedom of Information Act request was sent to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requesting that they release material from the Obama era potentially pertaining to Hunter Biden‘s business dealings, however, the White House has not confirmed whether they will seek to block the process.

Under the Presidential Records Act, Obama and the Biden administration were given sixty days to decide whether to release the material. If they elect not to give the green light, everything would remain sealed until 2029, according to Business Insider.

On November 30, NARA sent a letter to Biden administration lawyer Stuart Delery outlining the material compiled via the FOIA request, which was filed by a lawyer for America First Legal and sought to uncover all mentions of the word “Burisma,” the Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden had been given a seat.

According to NARA, the material included 69 images and 282 emails, all containing the word “Burisma” between May and December 2014.

The PRA allows for records relating to six restrictive categories to be withheld from release by the administration, and following a review, twenty-two emails and seventy-five partial emails were restricted. Left on the table were all sixty-nine images, 185 emails, and 75 partial emails.

Many of the emails contain press inquiries regarding Hunter Biden‘s activities and the then-VP’s office’s responses, as well as news articles on the subject.

NARA informed the Biden administration and former president Obama that they had until February 28, 2023 to decide whether they would like to invoke special privileges in accordance with the PRA.

The FOIA request is just the latest in a series of attempts to get to the bottom of any potentially unlawful business dealings relating to Hunter Biden and his family. He is currently under investigation by the Justice Department, and House Republicans have vowed to conduct their own inquiry.