Obama Privately Blasted A Republican Investigation Into Joe Biden And Ukraine..

Obama Privately Blasted A Republican Investigation Into Joe Biden And Ukraine, Calling It An Effort To Boost “Russian Disinformation”

(apologies if posted earlier)

WASHINGTON — The office of former president Barack Obama privately blasted a congressional investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son, as well as alleged Ukrainian election interference, calling it an effort “to give credence to a Russian disinformation campaign,” according to a letter obtained by BuzzFeed News. In March, Obama’s office told the National Archives and Records Administration — which maintains presidential records — that a request from two top Republican senators for Obama administration documents related to Ukraine was improper.

“It arises out of efforts by some, actively supported by Russia, to shift the blame for Russian interference in the 2016 election to Ukraine,” said the letter, dated March 13. It pointed to comments made by Fiona Hill, a former senior National Security Council official in the Trump White House, during the impeachment investigation into the president, calling Ukrainian election meddling “a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services.”

The November request for records came from Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, who have been investigating matters related to Democrats and Ukraine since the fall, when Trump was impeached for his interactions with Ukraine. Grassley and Johnson, who chair the Finance and Homeland Security committees, respectively, asked the National Archives for records on meetings between the Obama administration and Ukrainian officials, as well meetings between Obama officials and Alexandra Chalupa, the Democratic operative at the heart of the debunked Ukrainian election interference narrative.

(snip)

However, Obama ultimately agreed that the records could be released “in the interest of countering the misinformation campaign underlying this request,” according to the letter, which was provided to BuzzFeed News by his office in response to questions about the records request. Since mid-March, the National Archives has turned over around 9,400 pages of records to the Senate committees, according to an agency spokesperson.

Under federal law, both the former president whose records are sought and the current president are allowed to review and claim executive privilege over records requests. "Since 2017, the Office of President Obama has produced 12,880 pages of presidential records in response to special access requests from the White House and Congress," the letter said. In this case, representatives for Obama and Trump reviewed the records, the National Archives said, and neither had asserted privilege.

More..

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop/obama-records-biden-ukraine-russian-disinformation