Newly released emails have revealed that during his tenure as vice president, Joe Biden received sensitive communications via private email accounts created under fictitious identities. The emails, obtained by Just the News, include discussions on foreign policy with his national security adviser, schedules of meetings with Cabinet secretaries, and summaries of intelligence briefings to President Barack Obama.
The National Archives released these memos over the Memorial Day holiday weekend under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by the Southeastern Legal Foundation on behalf of Just the News. This lawsuit sought to access emails that Biden received or transmitted as vice president using his robinware456@gmail.com account.
While none of the newly released emails were marked classified, several contained sensitive information transmitted over an insecure Google email account, which could be valuable to foreign powers and hostile spy agencies. Most of the emails in the latest batch were from 2012.
One notable email involved a briefing forwarded to Biden from then-White House counterterrorism director John Brennan to President Obama on possible tsunamis affecting Hawaii in October 2012. The email detailed the emergency response plans and updates given to the president:
“Call with POTUS took place at 3:10 a.m. EST,” Brennan’s email stated. “He was briefed on earthquake, tsunami warnings, evacuation plans, and FEMA/federal response. He directed that all possible be done by the federal government to assist Hawaiian authorities before, during, and after the tsunami hits.
“Same should be true for any potential tsunami impact on Alaska, west coast of continental United States, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. POTUS asked to be kept updated on developments, which Alyssa and I will do,” the email noted.
Federal employees are permitted to use private email accounts only if they forward government-related messages to their official work account to preserve the conversations for public access and oversight. In 2017, the Trump administration faced significant criticism for allegedly failing to adhere to this rule.
Biden has not provided any explanation for using his private email account, nor has he clarified why these emails were apparently not forwarded to secure government servers. The White House has not addressed why Biden used pseudonymic email accounts. Ironically, Biden served as vice president when President Obama introduced the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government on his first day in office, promising a new era of open and accountable government.
The National Archives stated it possesses tens of thousands of such emails from three of Biden’s personal pseudonym accounts used during his vice presidency.
One email hinted at tensions between Obama and Biden, which surfaced on television talk shows over the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks. Biden had opposed the raid.
“Transcripts look great. I’ve got your back on the other thing,” senior White House adviser Antony Blinken wrote to Biden on October 23, 2012, just weeks before the presidential elections. “Also I re-read that transcript and – – not that this is much better — POTUS was not referring to the decision to get bin Laden but rather warning Pakistan. Goes back to 2008 campaign. I can explain.”
Several sensitive emails involved communications with Blinken, now Biden’s Secretary of State and then his chief security adviser. For instance, amid tensions between the Kurds and Iraqis in the Middle East, Blinken sent several emails to Biden with insights about the Mosul region on August 22, 2012.
“Mosul — is due west of Erbil BUT in Iraq proper, NOT in the KRG. It’s just west of the green line on the Iraq side,” Blinken wrote in one email to provide the vice president with geographic context.
Later, Blinken added some sensitive observations about potential violence:
“Further to this – there are parts of Ninewah Province that are disputed and a very small piece of Mosul itself, but the Kurds make no claim to the city as an entity. Lots of oil though, so could become a flash point,” Blinken wrote.
Earlier releases by the National Archives to the Southeastern Legal Foundation and Just the News included more routine government business communications, such as schedules and news clips. The latest batch contained more foreign policy and security information.
One clear pattern is that Biden’s staffers felt comfortable sending official information to his pseudonymic accounts, including schedules of meetings, even when they involved sensitive figures. For instance, White House official Cathy Cheung sent a tentative itinerary revealing Biden’s planned private meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the Naval Observatory in fall 2012.
“Sir, this is what the day would look like if you depart on Thursday for the service,” Cheung wrote to Biden on his private email account. “AM – 30 minute meeting with Secretary Panetta at NavObs.”