Revealed: James Comer used alias email accounts to discuss Chinese hemp venture

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) was busted in an apparent lie about his email usage while serving as Kentucky's agriculture commissioner.

The House Oversight Committee chairman has accused president Joe Biden for using email pseudonyms to hide wrongdoing around a failed business venture involving his son and a Chinese company, but The Daily Beast uncovered two email accounts Comer used as a government official to discuss an industrial hemp pilot program involving Chinese seeds that later turned out to be illegal cannabis.

"For instance, in a January 2014 message sent from one of two accounts named for Comer’s son, Harlan Comer, Comer told a KDA aide, 'I’ll touch base with you today about Hemp. Some things have happened over night [sic] with respect to hemp so we may be growing it this year,'" the website reported.

"That email came in response to an inquiry about Kentucky hemp regulations, including Chinese imports," the report added. "Harlan Comer was then around seven years old. His father signed the email, 'James Comer.'"

Comer used an alias in an email the following month to revise a presentation with a partner in the hemp program, which he signed "Jamie" and apparently sent from his iPhone.

ALSO READ: ‘Harm Democrats’: Republican lawmakers practically giddy about Trump prison silver lining

The pseudonyms – harlan2@ky.gov and harlan.comer@ky.gov – were uncovered by a public records requests by a third party targeting material related to the hemp program, and records show agriculture officials and the hemp initiative's outside counsel knew of the aliases, although Comer's spokesman claims he never used emails in his four years as commissioner.

“As the Commissioner of Agriculture, Congressman Comer’s email accounts were solely monitored and maintained by staff,” the spokesperson said. “All communications are publicly available through the Kentucky Open Records Act.”

That denial may seem implausible, but only one among hundreds involving the official “james.comer” account was sent from that address, and that was a forwarded email with no additional content, but an open records specialist said it was "inconceivable" that he did not use email.

“It’s fairly common practice to have an account to ensure vital official records are saved separately,” said Amye Bensenhaver, a former Kentucky assistant attorney general and an open records specialist. “But if the purpose is concealing it, it is wrong, it is illegal.”

Comer's denial is a “stupid thing to say, especially with proof that he did use the email,” she said, adding that it suggests “subterfuge to avoid accountability.”