(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced last week that the Delaware Superior Court ordered the University of Delaware to respond to the objections of Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation to the University’s court-ordered response justifying its decision to keep secret its deal to house and restrict access to the U.S. Senate records of President Joe Biden.
Upon review of an affidavit submitted by the university and Judicial Watch’s and the Daily Caller New Foundation’s objections to the affidavit, Judge Mary M. Johnston on August 23 gave the University 30 days to respond.
The Delaware Superior Court in June ordered the University to provide under oath additional information on its decision, in which the university asserted that no state funds were used on the university’s “matters or undertakings” regarding Biden and that the Biden Senate papers were never discussed at any meetings of the University’s full Board of Trustees.
Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation filed a July 2020 Delaware Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit after the University denied their requests on April 30, 2020, for all of Biden’s Senate records and for records about the preservation and any proposed release of the records, including communications with Biden or his representatives (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. University of Delaware, No. N20A-07-001 MMJ (Del. Super.)).
Biden’s papers include more than 1,850 boxes of archival records from his 36-year Senate career.
Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation in February of 2021 appealed an adverse lower court ruling, and the Delaware Supreme Court returned the case to the lower court.
The University then filed an affidavit, citing no documents or other specifics, stating that no state funds were used in its housing of Biden’s Senate papers and that the papers were never discussed at any meetings of the university full Board of Trustees.
Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation argue that the supplemental affidavit submitted by the university on July 27 was essentially a duplicate of the initial affidavit.
In objecting to the University’s filing, Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation write:
Even after having several opportunities to satisfy its burden of proof, the University submits a five-page affidavit filled with nothing more than hearsay and conclusory statements. By and large, the “Supplemented” affidavit is duplicative of what the University has previously submitted to justify its position. The University continues to fail to satisfy its burden.
What is now clear after the University has tried and tried again is that it cannot or, for whatever reason, refuses to satisfy its burden of proof to justify the denial of access to the records sought by Judicial Watch and DCNF. The Court must require either the turn-over of the records, or, in the least, allow Appellants the opportunity for limited discovery to confirm that the University’s position is totally without merit.“After all the lectures from the Biden Administration on democracy and the rule of law it’s amazing that the President has a secret deal in place to hide his records from the public,” said Daily Caller News Foundation President Neil Patel. “We are happy that the court is pushing the University of Delaware to stop playing games and come clean.”
“What is Biden hiding? Is there classified information in his Senate materials? Joe Biden has a secret deal to hide his Senate records with the University of Delaware—and a court wants more answers,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Of course, President Biden could help by simply releasing all his Senate records.”
Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation are being represented by Delaware lawyers Ted Kittila and Bill Green of Halloran Farkas + Kittila LLP.
