Two top Republican senators want the Secret Service’s full travel records on Hunter Biden and are criticizing the agency for years of missing documents and “inappropriate redactions” — especially related to a controversial Kazakhstan trip plan.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa have long sought access to the records on President Joe Biden’s son “and his use of government-sponsored travel while he conducted private business” during Biden’s vice presidency under President Barack Obama. They have specifically zeroed in on records between the Secret Service, Hunter Biden, and his business associates at Rosemont Seneca.
In a new letter to James Murray, the director of the Secret Service, the senators noted that the Secret Service had handed over 259 pages of records but with “extensive” and improper redactions.
“These inappropriate redactions impede our offices’ ability to understand the full scope of the interactions between Hunter Biden, his associates, and the USSS,” Johnson and Grassley wrote. “The USSS hid names and other information contained in email conversations regarding Hunter Biden without any proper legal justification.”
Emails from Biden’s laptop previously reported by the Washington Examiner show that Biden scheduled a meeting in 2014 with the then-prime minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov, in Kazakhstan to discuss an energy deal with Burisma. Biden said he planned to ditch his Secret Service security detail before departing from Paris to Kazakhstan to discuss the deal.
While serving on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, Biden shared a close business relationship with Massimov during his second stint as Kazakhstan’s prime minister from 2014 through 2016. Massimov was arrested earlier this month by Kazakh authorities on allegations of treason.
The laptop emails between Biden, his Rosemont Seneca business partner and fellow Burisma board member Devon Archer, and Ukrainian Burisma official Vadim Pozharskyi show their desire to work out a deal with Massimov.
Johnson and Grassley noted that the Secret Service records “do not show whether USSS personnel or Hunter Biden traveled to Kazakhstan in May or June 2014.”
The redacted emails do show redacted names working for the Vice Presidential Protective Detail, and the Secret Service emailed someone at Rosemont Seneca on May 23, 2014, asking about the plans for Biden’s “travel to and return from” Paris. A heavily redacted email that day from someone at Rosemont Seneca indicates that the plan was for Hunter Biden and two unnamed associates to fly from New York to Paris on May 28, 2014, and for the trio to fly “Air Astana” and “out of Astana,” Kazakhstan’s capital city, via London on June 3, 2014.
“I see that Hunter is departing from Kazakhstan to come back to the U.S.,” wrote an unidentified member of the vice presidential detail, who asked for an itinerary.
Someone at Rosemont Seneca replied that “what I know is they are flying private from Paris to K[azakhstan].” The member of the vice presidential detail asked how many days Biden would be in Kazakhstan and asked “if there will be room on the private flight for at least [redacted] of our guys (preferably [redacted]) we would greatly appreciate it.” The records appear incomplete and are unclear on what happened next. Hunter Biden’s specific travel itinerary is repeatedly redacted in the emails.
In laptop emails, Biden said his Secret Service detail was annoyed when he ditched them to pursue business deals in Kazakhstan.
“Vadim — I’ve chosen to carry on from Paris without the Secret Service,” he wrote in a message dated May 26, 2014. “They are not happy about it, but it seemed far too complicated and unnecessary. Best, Hunter.”
Pozharskyi had wanted to know how many Secret Service members might be accompanying Biden to Kazakhstan.
Earlier that month, Archer sent a message to Biden and Pozharskyi laying out his plans for the trip to Kazakhstan in late May 2014, including a birthday celebration in one Kazakh city and then a meeting with Massimov in Kazakhstan’s capital. Archer said this would be followed by a potential business trip to China’s capital to meet with members of the massive state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
Johnson and Grassley also “determined that even though Hunter Biden was a USSS protectee from January 2009 through July 2014, the USSS did not produce any communications regarding Hunter Biden’s travel for the years 2010, 2011, and 2013,” which “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.”
The senators asked for unredacted copies of the hundred pages of records and an explanation for why none of them span 2010, 2011, or 2013 before the end of January.
Earlier this month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki continued to refuse to answer basic questions about Biden’s role in a Chinese government-linked firm that has invested in companies sanctioned by the United States despite a lawyer for Joe Biden’s son saying he no longer holds his 10% ownership stake.
Hunter Biden is under a criminal investigation related to his taxes and potentially tied to his foreign business dealings.
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