OPINION:
A version of this story appeared in the On Background newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive On Background delivered directly to your inbox each Friday.
Third-rate paintings may end up being the greatest threat to President Biden. In the hierarchy of scandals, shady transactions between members of the first family and foreign nations held the greatest legal peril. Or so it seemed until Hunter Biden’s art dealer started talking.
In a transcribed interview with the House Oversight and Accountability Committee staff last week, Georges Berges, owner of the Manhattan gallery showcasing the first son’s work, laid the influence-peddling scheme at the White House doorstep.
Mr. Berges admitted to congressional investigators that Hunter’s last name was what set the price tag placed on the paintings in question. When these works went on the auction block in 2021, the White House insisted the sales were perfectly ethical. As then-press secretary Jen Psaki assured everyone, “a system has been established that allows for Hunter Biden to work in his profession within reasonable safeguards.”
Insisting Hunter had a right to pursue his newfound calling as a virtuoso with a paintbrush, Ms. Psaki explained the identity of anyone paying thousands for a Hunter Biden original would never be shared with Hunter or his father. This, in theory, created a firewall that would prevent the possibility of wealthy donors writing massive checks for mediocre paintings in return for the expectation that they could one day trade their generosity for favors with the Biden administration.
Mr. Berges told the committee he never spoke to the White House about ethics compliance, and donors were involved throughout the process. Hollywood producer Lanette Phillips is the prolific Biden fundraiser who introduced Hunter to Mr. Berges in the first place.
The gallery owner also confirmed that Hunter knew the identities of about 70% of the people who bought his artwork. The list of discriminating connoisseurs included major Democratic donors such as Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali and Kevin Morris, who sat next to Hunter last week on Capitol Hill when he made a surprise appearance while defying a congressional subpoena.
Ms. Naftali had paid $42,000 for one of Hunter’s paintings in 2021 before scoring an appointment to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad a few months later. Ms. Naftali followed up with a $52,000 art purchase in 2022. Hunter’s close business associate Eric Schwerin had received an appointment to the same commission during the Obama-Biden administration.
Mr. Morris, a prosperous Hollywood attorney, paid a total of $875,000 for a collection of Hunter’s paintings last year. According to Mr. Berges, the transaction was highly unusual, with Hunter and Mr. Morris hammering out certain financial details on their own.
The dubious art sales don’t involve the eye-popping dollar figures found in other Biden family shell games. Nor do they involve such intrigues as working, as Hunter did, for the “[expletive] spy chief of China,” in Hunter’s words. Nonetheless, the sales create the same appearance that money is making its way into Biden family accounts, and favors are potentially being received in return.
More investigation is warranted to know for sure whether these allegations hold up to scrutiny, but the gallerist’s testimony has painted the scandal in much bolder colors than originally suspected.
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