University Shielding Biden’s Records Must Provide More Information Justifying Decision: Court

Authored by Nick Ciolino via The Epoch Times,

The Delaware Supreme Court has ruled partly in favor of conservative groups seeking access to documents related to President Joe Biden’s time in the Senate.

Biden donated his Senatorial papers to the University of Delaware (UD) in 2012. This consisted of 1,850 boxes of archived records and 415 gigabytes of electronic records from Biden’s 36-year career in the Senate.

The donation was made as a gift, with an agreement that places certain restrictions on the university’s ability to make the documents publicly available.

Tara Reade, the woman who accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 at a Capitol Hill building while she was working as a staff assistant to the then-senator, has said that she believes a workplace discrimination and harassment complaint she filed against Biden at the time may be in the records housed at UD.

Biden has emphatically denied Reade’s sexual assault allegations saying “it never happened.”

In April 2020, Judicial Watch, Inc. and The Daily Caller News Foundation submitted requests under the Delaware Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to access the UD documents. The university denied both requests, saying the papers are not subject to FOIA because they are not considered “public records.”

The Delaware Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision on Dec. 6, deciding that the university must provide more information justifying its decision to keep Biden’s U.S. Senate records secret.

“We conclude that the University failed to carry its burden of justifying its denial of the Appellants’ FOIA requests,” the court documents read.

The case returns to the Delaware Superior Court, which initially affirmed that the documents were not subject to FOIA.

“The Superior Court is granted leave to accept additional evidence or submissions as it deems necessary and appropriate,” the ruling reads.

The Epoch Times reached out to the University of Delaware for comment but did not receive a response in time for the publication of this article.

In March of 2020, MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski repeatedly questioned Biden about whether he would release the documents in response to Tara Reid’s accusations.

“The material in the University of Delaware has no personnel files,” responded then-presidential candidate Biden. “But it does have a lot of confidential conversations that I had with the president about a particular issue, that I had with the heads of state of other places. That that would not be something that would be revealed while I was in public office or while I was seeking public office.”