Joe Biden Used Private Email to Send Government Information to Son, Hunter
News echoes that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
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Democrat Joe Biden reportedly used a personal email account to send sensitive government information to his shady foreign-deal-making son Hunter Biden.
The news echoes that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also used her private email to send classified government information.
The messages from Biden, sometimes signed "Dad," from the email account [email protected], were discovered on Hunter Biden's laptop which was seized by the FBI in 2019.
The emails from the then-vice president to his son are deeply personal, others political, but also clearly address business matters with information from senior officials in the White House.
In late 2014, the U.S. embassy in Istanbul sent an email to the State Department, which was forwarded to Joe Biden, including national security expert Michael Carpenter, alerting them that an American named Martin O'Connor was about to be released from detention in Turkey.
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"The lead attorney for Mr. O'Connor reports that the court granted the detention appeal and he expected Mr. O'Connor to be released from jail today, barring any unforeseen problems," the U.S. embassy in Instanbul wrote in an email that got forwarded to top Obama administration security and diplomacy officials.
"Mr. O'Connor will not be allowed to leave the country until his next hearing which is set for December 11, 2014.
"The lawyer expressed confidence that he will be able to leave after that hearing.
"The attorney is handling his release arrangements, pick up and temporary housing near his law firm's office.
"Istanbul consular plans to speak with Mr. O'Connor after his release."
State Department officials also forwarded the information to Biden's office, where Biden aide Colin Kahl sent Biden a private email.
Biden then sent it to Hunter Biden, with the subject line "Fwd: Mr. O'Connor Being Released from Detention today."
Just the News reported that former senior Obama administration officials were aware of the [email protected] email address for Joe Biden.
"I saw it used to communicate with his family and friends or to pass information to them," the official told the outlet.
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The emails also show numerous Obama administration officials communicated or had their information sent to it.
Tony Blinken emailed Biden at his private email recounting a colleague's conversation about the Pulitzer-winning journalist, author, and screenwriter Richard Ben Cramer's last minutes before dying.
Blinken was Joe Biden's national security adviser at the time.
"Called to say that he was with Richard Ben Cramer in the hospital before the latter passed, and they were talking about you till the end," Blinken wrote the vice president and his family, including Hunter Biden.
"Richard apparently said he was gratified the country is finally finding out what he knew about your leadership and talents many years ago."
The existence of the private email address also raises questions of federal law, which Clinton's email server showed.
Biden was obligated to preserve any emails of a governmental nature under federal records law.
"The Presidential Records Act required Joe Biden to make sure that any of his Gmail account emails, including these emails to Hunter Biden, were forwarded to a government account so they could properly be handled by the National Archives," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
"No wonder the Obama White House wanted to protect Hillary Clinton from the consequences of [her] email shell game!"
"We might know more beginning next year," he added.
"When Judicial Watch and the public can begin filing FOIAs for Obama White House emails."
Hunter Biden had reached out to his father via the private email address to ask for help, according to the laptop memos.
Hunter forwarded a request to have the vice president prepare a video message for an event honoring Texas Democratic activist Ben Barnes in 2012.
Biden replied: "We are working on it."
In June 2014, Hunter Biden suggested someone he wanted to see appointed as a detailee to the Treasury Department:
"Before you fill the positions, pls talk to me," Hunter Biden wrote his father.
The vice president responded, "Call me right away, Dad."
Other subjects of the emails were about the potential for Biden to run for president in 2016.
Biden's message also took a personal note, like the one sent when Hunter Biden had been discharged from the Navy over a positive cocaine test.
"Good as it could be," Joe Biden wrote in an email chain that included the article forwarded to the vice president's email address by White House staff.
"Time to move on, Love Dad."
