According to a recent court filing, more than 100 records were found by the Secret Service, that might be relevant to a lawsuit seeking information about an investigation into a gun-related incident involving Hunter Biden.
After the Secret Service previously walked back a statement that it had found potentially relevant documents about communications regarding the discovery of a firearm owned by Biden that was found in a Delaware dumpster several years ago. The disclosure represents a turning point in the protracted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case brought by the Judicial Watch.
However, the joint filing between the conservative watchdog group and the Homeland Security Department, which is the parent organization of the Secret Service, states that the two parties held consultations that resulted in further clarity on the scope of the request. Judicial Watch is using the recent development as evidence that the Secret Service is unable to get its story about the records straight.
The filing says,
“USSS initially responded to Judicial Watch on April 2, 2021, that it had located potentially responsive records and would process them in accordance with FOIA, but this response was sent in error. On October 13, 2022, USSS sent an updated letter to Judicial Watch to inform it that USSS had actually never located any records responsive to Plaintiff’s request after conducting a search and, thus, should have sent a no-records response on April 2, 2021 instead.”
The filing adds,
“Since the Complaint was filed, the Parties have conferred about the intended scope of Judicial Watch’s FOIA request and, in response, USSS has run supplemental searches and located over 100 records, totaling over 400 pages, potentially responsive to Judicial Watch’s request under the clarified understanding of that request.”
Judicial Watch released the joint filing on Thursday after it was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C., last month.
As reported by the Blaze, a source who claimed Hallie Biden, the widow of Joe Biden’s son Beau who was the then-presidential candidate, had allegedly taken a handgun owned by Hunter and put it in a trash can outside a Delaware grocery store in October 2018. Her brother-in-sister law’s Hallie and Hunter were seeing each other at the time. Hallie went to get the gun at Hunter’s request after telling him what she did, but when she got there, the gun was gone in a police report obtained by Politico.
Sources, who spoke with the media outlet said that a man who frequently digs through the grocery store’s trash in search of recyclables returned the gun days later and after this was reported, Judicial Watch then initially submitted its FOIA request.
No arrests were made nor charges filed in connection with the incident, but there’s still an air of mystery about the role played by the Secret Service, which was not providing protection to now-President Joe Biden at the time. As text messages between the pair reported by the Washington Examiner, allegedly that, Hallie said she was worried Hunter would “use” the firearm. Hunter complained how he did not believe he would “ever recover from all of this,” noting that Hallie’s actions made it appear he had “threatened you and your family with a gun.”
According to the paperwork associated with the gun purchase, Hunter, who has battled drug addiction for years, responded “no” when asked if he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.”
Sources said that Secret Service agents requested the store owner where Hunter bought the rifle for the sale documents but the owner refused, believing that they were trying to hide Hunter’s possession of the weapon. The Secret Service told the Washington Examiner last year it had “no involvement in this incident.”
The November joint filing states that the Secret Service would hand up any relevant, non-exempt data to Judicial Watch after completing its initial processing of the records in the FOIA action by January 9, 2023. The filing also states that the Secret Service will continue to do so on a rolling, monthly basis when discussions with other Executive Branch organizations take place.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued a statement after the file was posted to the organization’s website.
“The Secret Service’s changing story on records raises additional questions about its role in the Hunter Biden gun incident. One thing is clear, Judicial Watch’s persistence means the public may get records that the Secret Service suggested didn’t exist,” he said.
Sources: DailyWire, Politico, TheBlaze, WashingtonExaminer