This has been a huge Hunter Biden news day, and there have been a lot of relevant pieces here at RedState; go, then, and read them.
Let’s remember that his criminal charges aren’t the only scandal the Bidens are embroiled in right now, and what’s more, they don’t seem to be even bothering to try to hide the money laundering anymore. Not even the Clintons were this bold, and while their scandals may well have contributed to the Dowager-Empress of Chappaqua losing the 2016 election, the Bidens seem to be skating through many of their worst offenses unscathed. The Bidens’ dealings would make Huey Long blush, and among them (if somewhat eclipsed for the moment by the criminal charges) are Hunter Biden’s “art” career and some questionable political appointments.
Hunter Biden did, in fact, learn the identity of two buyers, according to three people directly familiar with his 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 a significant Democratic donor who has given $13,414 to the Biden campaign and $29,700 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year. In 2022, she hosted a fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Here’s the onion:
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 Naftali’s purchase of Hunter Biden’s artwork occurred before or after that appointment. Membership on the commission is an unpaid position often filled by campaign donors, family members, and political allies — the same crowd that often winds up with US ambassadorial appointments.
While it’s unclear how much Naftali paid for the painting (which certainly has the markings of a quid pro quo), we do know the details of another purchase, if not the buyer.
Internal Georges Berg?s Gallery documents obtained by Insider, a selection of which are published below, show that a single buyer purchased 11 Hunter Biden artworks for a total of $875,000. A gallery contract with Hunter Biden’s handwritten edits shows him excluding the sales of nonfungible tokens from the gallery’s 40% commission.
The identity of the $875,000 buyer is unclear. That one buyer represents the majority of the $1,379,000 in receipts that Hunter Biden’s gallery received for his work, the documents show, with the gallery receiving a 40% to 45% commission.
Let’s be generous and assume the Biden family allowed the gallery 45 percent. That means that Hunter Biden realized $758,450 from the sales of his daubs.
And, yes, daubs they are. You can see a few examples here. Give a chimpanzee a canvas, a few brushes, and some open paint pots, and it would do just about as well.
The naked chutzpah of these people is almost beyond description; I’m running out of pejoratives to describe just how awful this looks. They aren’t even trying to hide the use of Hunter as a money-laundering conduit for the Biden family anymore, not even now, with at least one political appointment (that we know of) pretty obviously tied to an “art” sale.
Granted, I probably find this even more egregious because I think I know a thing or two about art and artists. Two of our four daughters are freelance graphic artists. My father was a Midwestern artist of some renown back in the day, completely self-taught. From the late Sixties to the early Eighties, he had his own space in the Iowa State Capitol, where one of his paintings was always on display. He was the President of the Eastern Iowa Arts Council for a while in the early Seventies. And of all the paintings and pen-and-ink drawings he produced, he never sold one. He lent them to the state of Iowa and various local museums and galleries for display, and he gave them away to family. He had prints made of some of his pieces, like the morel mushroom painting shown here, and gave them to relatives and close friends; getting a print from Dad was a sign that he held you in some esteem.
Real art from a real artist. (Credit: Loren Clark (artist) Ward Clark (image))
That’s art, folks. Hunter’s daubs are not; they are barely more than finger-paintings, which makes the “sale” of these pieces for thousands of dollars all the more egregious and transparently corrupt.
Joe Biden and his family are shocking in their audacity. Whether it be old Joe threatening to withhold US taxpayer dollars unless a prosecutor looking into the company where Hunter was being paid over $50k a month was fired, or the bribery and money-laundering involved in Hunter’s holding that position, to something as overwhelmingly horrible as Joe and Doctor Jill denying their own granddaughter, the Bidens seem to react to any criticism or questioning with no denial but instead defiance.
There are some signs that Congress may try to yank the reins. Honestly, though, this probably won’t happen for two reasons; the dual phony impeachments of Donald Trump have made the whole process into a farce, and it’s without doubt that Senate Democrats will vote en bloc to acquit, the side taking the place of principles in American politics today. I could be wrong about this – I hope I am – but I’m afraid I’m not.
Fact is, the White House is occupied by a family that is, as my grandfather would have described it, as crooked as a snake with a broken back. They have grown monstrously rich peddling influence during Joe’s tenures as Senator, Vice President, and President, and they are unapologetic about it. Chances are they have set the tone for future aspirants to high office.
Nothing good for the Republic will come of that.
Trending on RedState Videos