The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the State Department seeking information about emails mentioning Hunter Biden.
Politico reported the Times sued the department “to obtain emails from Romanian embassy officials sent between 2015 and 2019 mentioning a number of international business people, including the president’s son and his former business associate [Tony Bobulinski], who briefly became a political celebrity at the end of the 2020 election because of his Biden connections.”
Additionally, the outlet noted the “FOIA requests also seek information on former New York City Mayor [Rudy Giuliani], who was dispatched by [Donald Trump] to find dirt on Hunter Biden’s business relationships in Ukraine.”
The newspaper accused the department of “dragging its feet on fulfilling multiple FOIA requests sent last year, beginning in June.”
According to Politico, the State Department told the Times they would fulfill the outlet’s FOIA requests by April 15, 2023.
The outlet explained one of the goals the Times has appears to be “finding out whether embassy officials did any favors on behalf of private businesses (including, presumably, that of the president’s son) that would raise questions about possible conflicts of interest and corruption.”
The report continued, saying the request seeks records about “(1) the possible improper use of federal government resources to assist and advance private business interests with connections to United States government officials and (2) the possible evasion of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by those private business interests, and (3) the non-enforcement of FARA by the federal government in relation to those private business interests.”
A spokesperson for the Times commented on the matter.
“As a routine part of their reporting, New York Times journalists regularly seek potentially newsworthy information from a variety of sources, including from the U.S. government through FOIA requests,” the spokesperson told Politico.
They continued, “We’re hopeful the government will promptly release any relevant documents, and as always we are prepared to pursue our request through a lawsuit if necessary. Just as we do on any line of reporting, we will assess the newsworthiness of the material once we receive it.”
Hunter Biden made headlines in October 2020 after the New York Post published a report on emails showing he introduced his father to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm.