The University of Delaware is sitting on more than 1,850 boxes of records from Joe Biden’s years as a senator – and doesn’t want the public to see them.
So, two years ago we went to court. This month our lawsuit advanced another step when the Delaware Superior Court ordered the university to provide under oath additional information justifying its decision to keep secret its agreement to house and restrict access to Biden’s records.
Here are the events leading up to this decision.
Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation filed a July 2020 Delaware Freedom of Information Act lawsuit after the University of Delaware denied our requests on April 30, 2020, for all of Biden’s Senate records and for records about the preservation and any proposed release of the records, including communications with Biden or his representatives (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. University of Delaware (No. N20A-07-001 MMJ (Del. Super.)).
We appealed an adverse lower court ruling and the Delaware Supreme Court returned to the case to the lower court.
The university then filed an affidavit, citing no documents or other specifics, stating that no state funds were used on the university’s “matters or undertakings” regarding Biden and that the Biden Senate papers were never discussed at any meetings of the university full Board of Trustees.
We challenged the sufficiency of the affidavit, and Superior Court Judge Mary M. Johnson ordered the University to provide more information:
[T]he remand mandates that the inquiry does not end with the University’s filing of an Affidavit swearing to information previously provided. The Supreme Court directed reconsideration of whether the University satisfied its burden of proof.
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The Court finds that the generalized statements in the Affidavit do not meet “the burden to create a record from which the Superior Court can determine whether the University performed an adequate search for responsive documents.” The University of Delaware must articulate who (identified at least by position within the University) provided the information: that no State funds were spent by the University; that no salaries of any University personnel involved in the custody and curation of the papers were paid with State funds; that no State funds were spent on the University’s email system for communications between University personnel and Biden representatives; when such inquiries were made; and what, if any, documents (other than the gift agreement) were reviewed.
“It’s absurd we’re having to sue the University of Delaware just to learn how they’re using taxpayer dollars,” said Daily Caller News Foundation Managing Editor Michael Bastasch. “Rest assured, with Judicial Watch’s help, we are optimistic we will uncover the truth about why they are seemingly keeping President Biden’s records a secret.”
Joe Biden is being protected by the University of Delaware, and the courts are growing impatient with the shell games. Of course, President Biden could end the dispute by simply releasing the details about his Senate records. What is Biden hiding?