Judicial Watch: Secret Service Official: ‘Maybe We Were Asked for A Favor?’ in Investigation of Hunter Biden’s Gun
Judicial Watch announced today that it received 487 pages of records from the United States Secret Service (USSS) related to the investigation of Hunter Biden’s gun, reportedly disposed of in a dumpster in Delaware in October 2018. The records show agency officials discussing media reports of its alleged involvement with one finding it “odd” that the Secret Service was involved in the investigation when Joe and Hunter Biden were not receiving Secret Service protection at the time. Another official responds: “Maybe we were asked for a favor?”
The records show the agency alerted the Biden White House and crafted a public statement insisting it had “no involvement in this alleged incident” and refusing to provide any additional clarification to media inquiries.
Judicial Watch is investigating whether and how the Secret Service intervened for Hunter Biden in an incident involving a gun allegedly owned by him. In September 2022, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records or communications about the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of a firearm owned by Hunter Biden found in a Delaware dumpster in October 2018 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-02841)).
Judicial Watch reported in December 2022 that the Secret Service repeatedly changed its position about whether it is in possession of records related to the investigation of Hunter Biden’s gun.
On October 29, 2020, a person whose name is redacted emails a Secret Service official in the “PID” (Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division) with a link to a Blaze article published earlier that day, reporting that Hallie Biden had taken a handgun owned by Hunter Biden in October 2018 and thrown it into a supermarket trash bin. The official then forwards the article to another official in the PID.
An official whose name is redacted later comments in this chain: “Oh dear…”
After being forwarded the same Blaze article, an unidentified Protective Intelligence Research Specialist responds to his colleagues: “It’s kind of odd that we were involved in the missing gun investigation when neither Hunter or Joe were even receiving USSS [Secret Service] protection at the time? Hmmm.” Another official replies: “Maybe we were asked for a favor?”
Senior Secret Service officials, whose names were disclosed in the records, were also notified of The Blaze article on November 2, 2020, including James Henry, then-Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Field Office; Michael D’Ambrosio, Assistant Director of the U.S. Secret Service in charge of oversight of all Secret Service domestic and foreign Secret Service offices; Steven Stanford, then-Deputy Assistant Director; Leonza Newsome III, then-Deputy Director; and Douglas Henderson, Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Investigations.
After The Blaze article was forwarded by James Henry to a colleague in the Wilmington, DE, office, whose name is redacted, the colleague responds to Henry: “Digging in now. There is more information but I don’t have it yet.”
In response to a February 24, 2021, email inquiry from Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger regarding the Secret Service’s involvement in the investigation of the Hunter Biden gun incident, the Communications Department asks for “more information or documentation.” Schreckinger responds: “Sure thing. Agents visited StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply and asked to take possession of the paperwork Hunter had filled out to purchase a gun there. The FBI also had some involvement in the investigation.”
The Communications Office then drafts and distributes internally a proposed response labeled “Draft/Predecisional/Draft.”
https://www.judicialwatch.org/secret-service-hunter-bidens-gun/
https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/JW-v-DHS-Hunter-Bidens-Gun-records-02841.pdf