Tipsheet

Hunter Biden and the Grift That Keeps Giving

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  July 26, 2023 10:15 AM

In early 2020, NBC's Savannah Guthrie gingerly asked then-candidate Joe Biden about his son's dealings with Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine.  The premise of her central question was that Hunter Biden was offered a lucrative position in an overseas company because the people who ran that company wanted access to the elder Biden -- who was Vice President of the United States at the time, and who happened to be running the administration's policy in...Ukraine.  Ornery Joe jumped down Guthrie's throat, insisting "that's not true" and accusing the television host of "saying things you don’t know what you’re talking about!”  Watch:


"No one said that! Who said that?" Well, just about everyone said that.  Biden's explanation for his son's  $83,000-per-month gig at the Ukrainian energy firm (confirmed by invoices contained on that laptop that Joe Biden intentionally and falsely labeled "Russian disinformation," by the way) was that Hunter is "a very bright guy."  Virtually everyone else who became aware of the arrangement -- especially given the younger Biden's lack of expertise in Burisma's business realm -- understood exactly why he was hauling in a cool million bucks a year from that company.  It wasn't Hunter's knowledge or prowess.  It was his last name.  Being a Biden during the Obama years was extremely valuable to Burisma.  Being a Biden after the Obama years was still useful, but not quite as much.  Which is why Hunter abruptly received a pay cut within weeks of the Obama administration ending.  Not because he was any more or less of a "very bright guy" all of a sudden, but for the abundantly obvious reason that his father, while still influential, no longer had his hands directly on the levers of power:

The Ukrainian energy company that was paying President Biden’s son Hunter $1 million a year cut his monthly compensation in half two months after his father ceased to be vice president. From May 2014, Burisma Holdings Ltd. was paying Hunter $83,333 a month to sit on its board, invoices on his abandoned laptop show. But in an email on March 19, 2017, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi asked Hunter to sign a new director’s agreement and informed him “the only thing that was amended is the compensation rate.” “We are very much interested in working closely together, and the remuneration is still the highest in the company and higher than the standard director’s monthly fees. I am sure you will find it both fair and reasonable.” After the email, the amount listed on Hunter’s monthly Burisma invoices was reduced to $41,500, effective from May 2017.

What timing, no?  It seems another we now have another valid response to Joe's snarling "who said that?" challenge to Guthrie's question, which was revealed last week. According to the FBI's (at least partially-corroborated) FD-1023 memo detailing allegations from a confidential informant, Burisma officials privately confirmed what has always been painfully clear about their, ahem, 'business partner.' They allegedly disparaged Hunter's intelligence and abilities, describing the high-dollar relationship as designed "to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems." Who said that?  Apparently, Burisma said that. 

It's extremely important to note that this isn't just about a loyal father defending his wayward son.  There is evidence that Joe Biden, referred to as "the Big Guy," was earmarked to receive a percentage of at least one payment associated with the family's sketchy, overseas business dealings -- in which the only readily apparent good or service rendered to various foreign sources was access or proximity to American power, literally embodied by the Big Guy.  And the FBI's trusted and paid confidential human source (CHS) also alleges a straight-up bribery scheme, in which Joe Biden received $5 million in exchange for helping one of Burisma's problems go away.  Which, at least on the surface, Biden did, and bragged about publicly.  This is why people rightly emphasize that this story isn't some weird partisan obsession with picking on the president's troubled adult son.  It's about the president's family income and the president himself.  Anyone still sticking with the "father's love" spin is embarrassing themselves.

Then there's the art grift.  One of Hunter's various side hustles is painting.  When he started putting his works for sale, with very hefty price tags, eyebrows were immediately raised (though outlets like the New York Times swooned).  The White House went through the motions of discussing a firewall of separation, swearing up and down that politics and presidential power would play no role in the selling of the First Son's art.  Indeed, they said, only the gallery would even know the identities of the buyers.  Business Insider's scoop, relayed by Katie yesterday, strongly suggests those assurances weren't altogether true.  Surprise:

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On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden pledged that there would be an "absolute wall" between his official duties and his family's private business interests. The Biden White House repeatedly made reference to that wall when responding to questions about the fledgling art career of Hunter Biden, the president's son. In 2021, when a New York art gallery debuted Hunter Biden's paintings with asking prices as high as $500,000, the White House said that Hunter Biden's team had a process for carefully vetting buyers, and that their identities were known only to the gallery, and not to Hunter Biden himself. The messaging seemed to suggest that Hunter Biden's art patrons came from a rarified universe of collectors who had nothing to do with the hurly burly of politics. Neither of those things has turned out to be the case. Hunter Biden did in fact learn the identity of two buyers, according to three people directly familiar with Hunter Biden's own account of his art career. And one of those buyers is indeed someone who got a favor from the Biden White House. The timing of their purchase, however, is unknown.

That buyer, Insider can reveal, is Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Los Angeles real estate investor and philanthropist. Hirsh Naftali is influential in California Democratic circles and is a significant Democratic donor who has given $13,414 to the Biden campaign and $29,700 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee this year. In 2022, she hosted a fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris. Insider also obtained internal documents from Hunter Biden's gallery showing that a single buyer purchased $875,000 of his art. The documents do not indicate the buyer's identity, which is also unknown to Insider at this time.

What a coincidence:

In July 2022, eight months after Hunter Biden's first art opening, Joe Biden announced Hirsh Naftali's appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. It is unclear whether Hirsh's purchase of Hunter Biden's artwork occurred before or after that appointment. Membership on the commission is an unpaid position that is often filled by campaign donors, family members, and political allies — the same crowd that often winds up with US ambassadorial appointments. Hirsh Naftali's fundraising activities mark her as the kind of well-connected donor who often wins such appointments, regardless of any relationship they might have with the president's family. But they do not address the possibility that Hunter Biden might have voiced his support for her appointment.  Well, did that happen or not? Did Hunter Biden weigh in with his father about the appointment of Hirsh Naftali? And did Hirsh Naftali buy Hunter Biden's art before or after she was appointed? Insider asked these questions. Neither the White House nor Hunter Biden's counsel could offer an answer...Hirsh Naftali did not respond to requests for comment.

This publication has confirmed with multiple sources that the Biden White House pledge (that Hunter wouldn't know who bought his paintings) wasn't true.  Hunter managed to "learn the identity of two buyers."  Of course he did.  Him knowing, and therefore his father knowing, was presumably the whole point of these people shoveling piles of money at his amateur art projects.  The president might respond to that glaring hypothesis by angrily asking "who said that?"  Perhaps he'd attribute the seven figures in art sales racked up thus far to Hunter's unique skill.  It's easy to imagine Joe observing that his son is "one helluva talented painter, pal."  We've seen this all before, just in a different realm of family grift.  This may come as a shock, but the Free Beacon reports that Hunter Biden had previously been in conversations (once again, confirmed by his laptop) with others interested in being named to the very same prestigious federal commission that the woman who purchased some of his art ended up joining, within months of the art going on sale:

Not only do the Bidens know at least two of the individuals who purchased some of Hunter’s paintings, but one of them, Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, was appointed to a glamorous federal commission not long after buying the first son’s art, Business Insider reports. The other buyer is Kevin Morris, the Los Angeles attorney who has reportedly lent Hunter at least $2 million for his back taxes, child support, and living expenses for his lavish home in Los Angeles. The New York Times reported that Morris, who is open about owning the art, received several paintings as a gift. President Joe Biden appointed Naftali, a Los Angeles-based real estate investor, to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad—a federal agency that oversees the preservation of European historical sites—in July 2022. Her appointment came just nine months after Hunter Biden’s first art show...

Although the timing of Naftali’s purchase is unknown, Hunter has suggested he’s played a hand in appointments to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. In March 2015, Hunter Biden’s cousin, Missy Owens, inquired about whether her mother could receive a presidential appointment, emails from a copy of his laptop show..."Eric asked for one of these the day after the election in 2008," Hunter wrote back. "You know better than me what are real and interesting appointments. Let’s go through the list with Steve and see what makes sense. I don’t know how much 2016 and nepotism plays into it." The "Eric" in that email appears to be Hunter Biden’s longtime business associate Eric Schwerin, who was appointed to the commission in 2015.

So many 'coincidences:'


Another one, with a fun Psaki flashback:


I particularly enjoy this quote from the White House:

"Hunter Biden is a private citizen who is entitled to have his own career as an artist," White House spokesman Ian Sams told Business Insider. "We are not involved in his art sales, and any buyers of his art are not disclosed to the White House."

Ah yes, he's just a random private citizen (who is alleged to occasionally live in, or sleep at, the White House), pursuing his "career as an artist," to which he's "entitled."  And if the buyers are disclosed to Hunter, aren't they disclosed to the White House, or at least the Big Guy?  Was one of the buyer's presidential appointment to a sought-after board just a happy random event for al involved?   I'll leave you with the latest installment of the "news" media acting as a Democratic Super PAC -- this time via an "analysis" written by a notorious partisan journo working at a newspaper that's reportedly on track to somehow lose $100 million this year alone: