Secret Service claims it has ‘no records’ of who visits Biden in Delaware

From NY Post.com (April 20, 2022):

WASHINGTON — The US Secret Service has dubiously claimed to The Post that it has “no records” of visitors to President Biden’s two Delaware residences and therefore cannot divulge that information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Biden was at his residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach on about one-quarter of all days during his first year in office, but little is known about who stopped by for official meetings or less formal lobbying efforts — such as by members of his family and their associates.

The Post sought more than one year of visitor log records, including for Biden’s first year in office, but Secret Service Freedom of Information Act officer Kevin Tyrrell wrote in a response dated Monday that “[t]he Secret Service FOIA Office searched all Program Offices that were likely to contain potentially responsive records, and no records were located.”

First son Hunter Biden is under criminal investigation for possible tax fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying after routinely seeking business in countries where his father held sway as vice president. The younger Biden worked on some overseas projects with his uncle Jim Biden.

Documents and photos from a laptop that formerly belonged to Hunter Biden indicate that he introduced his dad to business associates from China, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine — including at the vice president’s residence in Washington.

Biden was at one of his Delaware homes for 99 days during his first year in office, including for official business, such as an Oct. 24 breakfast where Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) lobbied centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to support Biden’s Build Back Better Act social spending plan.

The president sometimes speaks about how his houseguests influence his views on policy. For example, in January, Biden said that a family friend gave him an education about rising prices amid four-decade-high inflation.

“I was sitting in my kitchen yesterday and here’s a sunroom off the kitchen and my wife was there with her sister and a good friend named Mary Ann,” Biden recounted. “And she was saying, ‘Do you realize it’s over $5 for a pound of hamburger meat? $5?’”

Transparency groups have fought for presidential visitor logs with mixed success, incurring notable defeats from federal appeals courts based in Washington and New York.

The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) successfully sued to obtain limited records pertaining to a Japanese delegation visit to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but the records weren’t detailed.

“While we won access to those records, we never got much, as the Secret Service came out and said they were not vetting the president’s meetings, the Trump Organization was,” said CREW spokesperson Jordan Libowitz.

“I have not seen any reporting that there is a ton of official business and outside meetings being done when Biden goes to his personal residence in Delaware for the weekend, mainly just going to church,” Libowitz added. “If he were meeting with foreign heads of state at his house in Delaware, that would obviously be a different matter, though.” [read more]

Another article on the subject: 

 Secret Service Is Selling Us a Bunch of Malarkey When It Comes to Joe Biden's Visitors