Oversight Committee Seeks Flight Logs For Every Time Hunter Biden Used Air Force Two To Further The Family Business
Early Wednesday, the chair of the House Oversight Committee dispatched a follow-up letter to the national archivist requesting travel records and related documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president. The documents request suggests that while vice president, Joe Biden allowed his son to accompany him on international trips to facilitate Hunter Biden’s recruitment of foreign investments in the Biden brand — adding more evidence to the already overwhelming mountain of material implicating the Biden family in a pay-to-play scandal.
Last week, Fox News reported that Hunter Biden traveled to at least 15 countries with his then-vice president father. And according to Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, during one official trip to China as vice president, Joe Biden met with at least one of his son’s business associates in Beijing. During other international trips, Hunter also worked to develop the Biden brand with various meetings and conversations.
Oversight Chair James Comer told The Federalist “then-Vice President Joe Biden abused Air Force Two by allowing his son to jet set around the world to sell ‘The Brand’ to enrich the Biden family.”
To uncover the details of what Comer calls “yet another example of then-Vice President Biden abusing his public office for his family’s financial gain,” the Oversight chair requested the national archivist provide the committee access to an array of documents that may reveal the extent of the scandal. In the letter, Comer sought access to the manifests for any Air Force Two or Marine Two flights on which other Biden family members or business associates, namely Eric Schwerin, Devon Archer, or Jeffrey Cooper, traveled during Joe Biden’s time as vice president. Comer also requested copies of “all documents and communications from the Executive Office of the President (including but not limited to the Office of the Vice President) to or regarding certain Biden family members or associates” and related to travel on the vice president’s aircraft. Intriguingly, the House Oversight chair also sought any documents concerning “security incidents” on Air Force Two or Marine Two during Biden’s vice presidency.
While it is unclear what the documents will reveal, a reference in a letter Comer sent the archivist about two weeks ago suggests the type of damning information that may be buried at the National Archives. In that earlier letter from Aug. 17, 2023, Comer requested copies of all the drafts of then-Vice President Biden’s Ukrainian speech on Dec. 9, 2015 — when Joe Biden first called out the supposed public corruption of the prosecutor he would later pressure the Ukrainian government to fire. Comer also sought all “documents or communications” that used Joe Biden’s various aliases, including Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware, as well as documents or communications that mentioned Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, or Devon Archer, or included them as a sender, recipient, or carbon-copied recipient.
Further — and here’s the telling suggestion of the possible treasure trove awaiting in the archives — the Oversight Committee chair sought “unrestricted special access” to a document entitled “Email Messages To and/or From Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden related to Burisma and Ukraine.” While that document is available on the National Archives website, it remains redacted, so Comer is asking the archivist for access to the unredacted email and attachments.
And no wonder why: The publicly available information shows that “at 9:00 a.m. on May 27, 2016, Vice President Biden took a call with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko,” and that a document referencing that call was sent to the email for “Robert L. Peters,” which was one of the several pseudonyms used by then-Vice President Biden. Hunter Biden, who had no official government position, was copied on that email.
With the House’s latest request to the archivist, it appears they are hopeful that another smoking email or two may establish both that Hunter Biden’s travel with the Big Guy was to further the Biden family bottom line and that Joe Biden knew full well that his son was selling access to him. Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, who signed the letter along with Comer, agrees, telling The Federalist, “the walls are closing in on the Biden Family due to consistent and diligent efforts by House Republicans who’ve followed the money, conducted meticulous interviews and hearings, and uncovered undeniable corruption.”
Whether the national archivist will comply with Comer’s request without being subpoenaed, however, remains to be seen. And if so, can Americans trust the same bureaucracy that pushed the FBI to launch an investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of presidential records, with handing over evidence that could potentially doom Joe Biden?
Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
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