[Salon] NY Post - Transparency is a Joke in Biden White House

[Jim Bovard <jbovard@his.com>]

https://nypost.com/2023/01/16/transparency-is-clearly-a-joke-to-the-biden-white-house/

Transparency is clearly a joke to the Biden White House

By James Bovard

There is nothing to see behind the curtain — or anywhere across the Delaware state line.

The Secret Service announced Monday that it had no logs of visitors to Biden’s White House East — his mansion in Wilmington and his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach.

The White House refuses to disclose any information on Biden’s Delaware visitors because “his personal residence is personal.”

But what if the personal residence is also a crime scene?

There is no “Corvette exemption” in the federal law that imposes a prison sentence of up to 10 years for gross negligence in storing classified documents — as Biden apparently did in his Delaware home.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is demanding those records: “In light of the Biden family’s suspicious business schemes with foreign adversaries, Americans need to know who has visited President Biden’s Wilmington residence and had access to the stashed classified documents that sat in Biden’s garage.”

At least some of the secret documents discovered in Delaware dealt with Ukraine. Hunter Biden resided in the home at the time the classified documents were left in the garage.

He was being paid lavishly to sit on the board of directors for Burisma Holdings, a shady Ukrainian energy company. Did Hunter or anyone who visited the residence exploit federal secrets for illicit gain?

Biden has spent 167 days at his Delaware residences since taking office. Even The Washington Post recognizes the Delaware mansion as “a de facto extension of the White House.”

Who is whispering in his ear or pulling his strings while he is away so much from the Oval Office? The White House claims the Delaware visitor list would reveal little except “the comings and goings of the president’s grandchildren.” Then why is Team Biden fervently fighting disclosure?

The New York Post has repeatedly filed Freedom of Information Act requests for lists of Biden’s Delaware visitors to no avail. In October, the Secret Service claimed it found “no responsive records.”

So the records didn’t speak out loud during the search or what? No wonder journalists deride FOIA as “The Freedom FROM Information Act.”

Biden has gone to the barricades on visitor logs in the past. Last year, former President Donald Trump sought to invoke executive privilege to shield White House visitor logs for Jan. 6, 2021. Biden rejected that request because it “is not in the best interests of the United States and therefore is not justified.” But Delaware is different.


Aides may face heat

When Biden took office, he promised “the highest standards of transparency.” But expecting candor from this White House is howling at the moon.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton declared, “If there aren’t any records, the scandal is much bigger than just a lack of transparency.”

Has Biden preprogrammed federal agents to destroy or never create any evidence that could incriminate himself or his appointees?

Perhaps congressional investigators can breach that Delaware stone wall. If visitor records don’t exist, Congress can “seek alternative sources for the information, including interviewing staff and family on past visitors,” law professor Jonathan Turley observed. And unlike White House spokespersons prattling behind a lectern, those staffers could face criminal penalties if they lie to investigators.

Biden never promised to drain the “Washington swamp” that made him rich and powerful. The Biden administration is perpetuating the excessive secrecy that makes a parody of self-government. Biden, like other recent presidents, recognizes that “what people don’t know won’t hurt the government.”