By Bill Juneau, March 17, 2022Joe Biden was a United States Senator from Delaware for 36 years prior to becoming a Vice President in 2008 and the nation's 46th President in 2020. Records for his days in the federal government's highest offices, including transcripts of speeches, telephone calls, and private conversations — even letters and registered complaints against him, are archived as items of history.
Permanent records of his accomplishments, together with his lies, gaffes, plagiarisms and bumblings, a big piece of the Slow Joe Biden story, are stored in some 1,850 sealed boxes in basement cabinets in the University of Delaware in Newark.
Under terms of a contract between Biden and the University, inked in 2011, the contents cannot be touched or disclosed to anyone until 24 months after Biden ends his career in government. Now 79, he will complete his first term in 2024, but has served notice that he wants another four years, and while unlikely, could conceivably get it.
Judicial Watch, a privately funded government watchdog organization, believes that the Biden "secrecy" agreement with the university is out of line and contradicts constitutional mandates embodied in state and federal FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) laws. When news of the existence of Biden's "off limit" files became known, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit seeking permission to leaf through the papers.
Tom Fitton, president of JW, said that the suit was initiated partially on behalf of Ms. Tara Reade, a former staff employee of Delaware Sen. Biden's, who has contended that the senator assaulted her sexually in 1993, and that records inside the closed boxes will confirm her truthfulness. President Biden has called her a liar and said she is fabricating the story for attention.
Fitton says also that Biden has told of conversations that he has had as a senator with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Citizens are entitled to know the subject of those discussions and what Sen. Biden had said, and if his comments then are relevant today in light of the Russian aggression and unprovoked and bloody attack on the bordering country of Ukraine.
In its recent opinion, the Delaware Supreme court reversed a decision of a lower Superior court which had approved the contract. It remanded the case back to the lower court with orders to provide sworn testimony concerning the agreement, its basis, and whether it should fall under t he FOIA mandate.
During the 2020 Presidential campaign, Ms. Reade was one of nine women who came forward and castigated Biden for his touchy-feely and hair- sniffing behavior which made them uncomfortable. Reade's complaint was far more serious than the others in that she recounted how Biden had hit on her after hours in a dark corner of t he Capitol building and pawed her like a lion in heat.
She said that he thrust his hand under her clothing and penetrated her with his finger, saying , "hey man, I thought you liked me." Reade said that she made a written complaint in the senate office, and that the complaint exists and will verify her story, and that she is not a liar.
Democrats, with the main street media tethered to its side, pretty much ignored Ms Reade. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she believed Biden when he said that Reade's story was fabrication. The Democratic blueprint that "all women are to be believed" was disregarded when the alleged predator was a Democrat.
Fitton noted that the Delaware Supreme court has said that the state's open records law requires the university to provide additional information under oath, to justify its refusal to produce records about its dealings with Biden.
So what is the problem with Biden, asks Fitton whose organization has been a powerful force for good in government. Why won't President Biden simply release his Senate records? What is he trying to hide?"
Bill Juneau worked for 25 years as a reporter and night city editor at the Chicago Tribune. Subsequently he became a partner in a law firm and also served as a village prosecutor and as a consultant to the Cook County Circuit Court and to the Cook County Medical Examiner. He is currently writing columns and the 'Florida Bill' blog.
