Republican investigators are seeking answers after the US Secret Service (USSS) made “extensive” and improper redactions to Hunter Biden’s travel records before providing them as part of a FOIA request earlier this month
Unbelievably, three full years of records were completely missing from the documents because, apparently, the records are inexplicably missing and the agency can’t find them.
Last month, Republican Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) requested Hunter’s travel records as part of an ongoing Congressional investigation into the Biden Crime Family for their use of government resources to conduct shady business dealings. In response, the USSS produced 261 heavily redacted pages related to the request but did not include any records for 2010, 2011, or 2013, and provided absolutely no explanation for the omissions.
Because of the USSS’s lack of transparency, Johnson and Grassley immediately filed another request for the unredacted documents and began raising concerns over the missing records, pointing out that Hunter Biden was a Secret Service protectee from January 2009 through July 2014 and the ongoing investigation has already determined he was traveling around the world during that time.
In a letter to the USSS, the pair criticized the agency for hiding crucial information through repeated “inappropriate redactions” that lack “any proper legal justification,” which, they say, has effectively prevented any proper oversight of the Bidens and their illicit business dealings.
From Sens. Grassley and Johnson:
“[This] raises questions, given that USSS travel records show that Hunter Biden made trips to China and other destinations around the world, including, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Mexico.
These inappropriate redactions impede our offices’ ability to understand the full scope of the interactions between Hunter Biden, his associates, and the USSS. The USSS hid names and other information contained in email conversations regarding Hunter Biden without any proper legal justification.”
After over a month of silence, the USSS provided a shockingly poor justification in a letter earlier this month. Agency Director James Murray claimed that they simply couldn’t find any documents related to Hunter’s travels from those years.
“In consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, on June 11, 2021, the Secret Service provided documents responsive to your request in accordance with law, longstanding Executive Branch practice, and Department-wide standards.
In October 2020, the Secret Service worked extensively with your committees, and agreed to search parameters provided by your offices to identify communications regarding Mr. Biden’s travel. These search parameters did not yield communications for the years 2010, 2011, or 2013.”
Seriously?
Thankfully, Johnson and Grassley aren’t buying the weak excuse for a second, and are pushing ahead with the requests for the missing information with the help of government watchdog Judicial Watch.
From the Epoch Times:
“Chris Farrell, the director of investigations and research for Judicial Watch, told The Epoch Times that it’s “highly improbable” that the USSS lost the records in question.
‘I would not be surprised if there was political pressure on the service to withhold the records because it would be politically damaging to President Biden,’ he [Farrell] added.
Both Judicial Watch and Sens. Grassley and Johnson say Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s position as vice president to benefit himself personally, even conducting business while on trips with his father.
‘Past performance doesn’t always guarantee exact reproduction or the same details, but I think it’s reasonable, given the pattern and practice, that we would see more of the same—lots of instances where Hunter was traveling with his father and essentially leveraging his father’s position as vice president for his own personal business benefit,’ he said.
Judicial Watch could file a lawsuit over the records.”
