Judicial Watch: Hearing Set by Court on Whether to Reopen Lawsuit for President Biden’s Senate Records, Special Counsel Report Suggests Univ. of Delaware Misled Courts

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that a hearing will be held in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware on June 13, 2024, on its petition to reopen its case for the release of Joe Biden’s Senate records kept at the University of Delaware in light of the findings of Special Counsel Robert Hur that contradict representations made under oath by representatives of the University of Delaware that no consideration was paid to Biden in connection with his gift of his Senate records. Plaintiffs Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation asked the court to reopen the case, and Judge Ferris W. Wharton will hear arguments at 2 p.m. on Thursday in the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center in Wilmington, DE.

In July 2020, Judicial Watch filed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for the records, which are housed at the university’s library (Judicial Watch Inc. and The Daily Caller News Foundation v. DE Department of Justice and University of Delaware (No. N20A-07-001 CEB)).

In July 2023 the Delaware Supreme Court sided with the university, denying the release of the records because the university stated to the courts that no tax dollars were used to manage them.

On February 5, 2024, Hur released his report on the scandal. It calls into question the representations by the university that no state tax dollars were used to manage the papers, which Hur also found to have contained unlawfully retained classified information.

In its petition to reopen the case, Judicial Watch argues:

The [university’s affidavit] provides, in relevant part, that no consideration was paid to President Biden, “State funded or otherwise,” in connection with the Senatorial Papers. To the contrary, the Special Counsel Report found that “Mr. Biden asked two of his former longtime Senate staffers to review his boxes in courtesy storage,” and that “[t]he staffers were paid by the University of Delaware to perform the pre-gift review….”

“The Hur report revelations are absolutely stunning,” said Michael Bastasch, editor-in-chief for the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The University of Delaware has some serious explaining to do.”

“We have powerful evidence that the courts were misled about the Biden papers,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation are represented by Delaware lawyers Ted Kittila and Bill Green of Halloran Farkas + Kittila LLP.

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