Former Vice President Joe Biden and Former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken attend the National Committee On American Foreign Policy 2017 Gala Awards Dinner on October 30, 2017 (Credit:
Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
New email records released by the National Archives show then-Vice President Joe Biden was briefed about sensitive foreign policy matters by then-advisor Antony Blinken on his private email account, including details about a failed North Korean missile launch.
Joe Biden, now president, first faced scrutiny about potential private accounts after emails contained on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop showed the then-vice president in the Obama administration was using an email address with a pseudonym to communicate about business and official matters with his son, other family members, and senior staff.
One new email, part of several batches released by the National Archives pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit shows that in the hours following a North Korean missile launch in April 2012, Blinken—who was then Biden’s national security advisor—sent a message to the vice president’s private email account “robinware456@gmail.com” with details about the sensitive national security matter.
“Just in case you missed it, the North Korean rocket failed somewhere between the first and second stages,” Blinken wrote. “Will take some time to determine why.” The future Secretary of State signed the email message, “tony.”
You can read the email below:
The launch marked a provocative escalation during a time of leadership transition in the communist dictatorship as Kim Jong Un was assuming powers from his father, who had died the preceding December. One day after the email, North Korea confirmed that the rocket launch had indeed failed.
82,000 pages
Blinken followed up on his first email two days later, presumably with more updates, but the contents of that communication were redacted by the National Archives under the “P5” exemption, which excludes information from FOIA requests that “would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors,” under the Presidential Records Act.
The memos reviewed by Just the News are part of the several batches of communications released by the National Archives under pressure from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Southeastern Legal Foundation prompted by Just the News’ reporting three years ago that revealed Biden used at least three different pseudonym private email accounts when he was Barack Obama’s vice president. (Read more emails: Just the News, 12/17/2024) (Archive)